Despite a surge from McLaren and the slowing gaining Mercedes, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen still enjoys a comfortable lead at the top of the F1 standings in 2024. As impressive as his early season streak has been there have been more than a few moments, already, that has made 2024 a Formula 1 season to remember.
Hamilton to Ferrari
It seems like forever ago that the news broke of Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari. It seemed inevitable that Hamilton would re-sign with Mercedes, a team who has taken him to six world championship titles.
But. Times have been tough at Mercedes for some time now. Since the introduction of the new era of ground-effect cars the German team has struggled to unlock the regulations and to produce a car capable of taking Hamilton to an elusive eighth title.
In fact, the title hasn’t even entered discussions at Mercedes and race wins too have been hard to come by if you exclude the last month and a half. Hamilton’s epic win at Silverstone earlier this year was his first since the 2021 Saudi Arabian grand prix – a near unfathomable winless stretch for a driver who was stood on the top step of the podium more than 100 times. Still, even though Mercedes appears to have turned a corner with its cars it’s too little too late for Hamilton. No doubt slightly disillusioned and a lot frustrated Hamilton has decided to don the red overall for 2025.
There is truth after all the maxim that everyone wants to be a Ferrari driver at some point. Hamilton’s move wasn’t only a shock to fans, but it also plunged the driver market into chaos. There is no telling how Hamilton will perform at Ferrari or if it was the right move. But it will certainly inject a serious amount of excitement and anticipation into F1 2025.
Red Bull Troubles
It turned out that the rumours of in-fighting and power plays within Red Bull were, after all, not greatly exaggerated. Before the 2024 cars had even broken cover report of objectionable behaviour from team principal Christian Horner began to surface. Red Bull were quick to quell rumours and confirmed that an investigation was underway. This wasn’t enough for those who wanted to seize power though – Helmut Marko and Jos Verstappen. They pair made highly contentious statements to the press and fed several damaging ‘stories’ to the media about Horner.
Ultimately, Horner was clear of any wrongdoing, Jos Verstappen was ‘banned’ from the Red Bull garage for a few months and all’s well that ends well. Or is it? In the subsequent months Adrian Newey has announced his ‘retirement’ from the team and several key members are moving on from Red Bull.
And then there are the rumours about Max Verstappen’s departure that will simply not desist. The latest being that he, and Adrian Newey, are poised to join Aston Martin. It seems the troubles at Red Bull are far from over.
The Formula 1 season resumes on 23 August with the Dutch grand prix.
