Hello! My name is Justin and welcome to my new blog about Formula One. My new found joy in life. Come hang out, read some washed opinions and enjoy your time here!
How are you? Doing good? Staying healthy? Getting enough sleep?
These are all questions that all of us F1 fans should be asking each other right now. Why you ask? So much has been popping off day after day out of the blue after what was going to look like the most routine offseason the sport has seen in a long time. Well, record breaking routine actually since there were no change in drivers for the first time in the history of F1.
Then the teams and executives all said “hold my beer”.
It’s almost like F1 management or team principals predicted a dip in ratings or hype for next season that they all decided to spice things up together. AND BOY HAS IT BEEN WORKING!
It all started in mid-January when Gene Haas decided it was time to let go of the teams most marketable entity, team principal Guenther Steiner. Mr. Drive to Survive himself (the series will not be the same without you). Now the team is left soulless with a fading driver lineup who are both out of their prime, driving a car that the new team principal has already dragged through the mud. Not a very uplifting message for all those working back at the factory. Sad days are ahead for this team who might be on their way out of the sport.
*cough cough* (Andretti enters the chat)
I’ll give a few seconds on this one since I don’t know much about Andretti’s history but from what I have seen online this is a huge egotistical blow from F1 management for denying his spot on the grid. I do agree with most people that Andretti/Cadillac would offer MUCH more for the sport than what Haas is currently dishing out right now…
On to the next! Where were you on February 1st, 2024? I was getting a workout in early morning checking twitter in between sets where I saw the reports of something happening. Hamilton to Ferrari. No one knew if this time the rumours were true but more reports kept coming in and things started escalating. Twitter was on fire. Everyone was chaotic. Sky sports confirms it, reports say it’s a done deal, all staff meeting at Mercedes, Hamilton to Ferrari, Hamilton to Ferrari. Let’s just say, I didn’t finish my workout that morning.
An insane day for the sport, it’s the biggest transfer in history. I still can’t believe it’s going to happen! Can we just skip to 2025? Who knows why Lewis announced it so early? Was it to stop Ferrari from re-signing Sainz or someone else which would ultimately block Hamilton’s last chance at driving in Red? Who’s going to replace him? Alonso (I hope)? Albon? Ocon?
Either way the entire grid is about to fall apart and I’m here for it! I’m just happy both Papaya drivers are locked in! It’s been so crazy a friend just told me he bets Ricciardo is jumping ship and replacing him to fight against Max again. This is what this news has turned us into. It has broken our brains!
Ugh, now for the not so good news that I want to at least mention without putting too much weight on it since a lot of this is still allegations.
Horner has allegedly been asked to resign to due to mistreatment of an employee. This would be another huge shock and pillar to Red Bull leaving. the Singapore GP is also being investigated for corruption. I’m not too too surprised by this one knowing the state of that area in the world. We shall see where this one goes! Singapore is a great track and will be missed. Ah yes, then there is the medium rare stake kick sauber F1 team debacle of removing Stake from the Sauber website due to the gambling sites licensing issues. RIP Stake F1 team (2024 - 2024). Then there’s FIA staff leaving…all bad bad stuff for business. All to see what happens with this!
Lastly, let’s chat about the newly announced Sprint weekend format! I am very excited that F1 has stepped in to change the weekend structure as people were ignoring Saturdays as a whole and not able to watch Quali on Fridays during work. What a sham that was. However, given the new structure, the drivers will have a sprint race on Saturday mornings and have to suit right back up for the full hour long quali session in the afternoon. I’m really excited to see how that goes with the drivers energy levels but also car quality. Say a crash happens in the race and it’s unfixable in time for quali then that driver will have to start from the back. Spicy stuff or will this mean that drivers will start pushing less in sprints now that the big points quali session is hours after instead of over night? Let me know what you all think about that!
I think it’s a great change for viewership and really ensuring that everyday ACTUALLY counts. The sprint will have some effect on quali with car problems, driver errors etc.
Well! All of that in just a few weeks and I thought this was going to be one of the quietest offseasons. I shouldn’t have jinxed it!
Thanks for reading, come back another time! Make sure to subscribe for more thoughts on F1. I’m hoping to make this a regular thing!
Justin