Formula 1: Leclerc, Ferrari, Verstappen, Hamilton – 5 questions about the 2024 season
Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz will race in their final season together pending Lewis Hamilton's arrival (Photo © Scuderia Ferrari)
The new F1 season kicks off in Bahrain on March 2. Let’s take a look ahead to what promises to be a fascinating vintage!
1. Title n° 4 for Max Verstappen?
It’s hard to think of new superlatives to describe Max Verstappen’s 2023 season, given that the Dutch driver won 19 of the season’s 22 Grand Prix on the way to his third world championship crown.
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An unassailable domination that brings the triple world champion to within a length of Alain Prost and Sebastian Vettel.
He has already won 54 races in his career, at only 26, and he knows he has a target on his back this year. But while Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren promise more powerful cars than last season, the Dutchman remains the favourite to take title n° 4.
Why? Because his stable is built around him, because he is impressively consistent and because there seems to be no ceiling to his talent.
Only Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and to a lesser extent Lando Norris and Fernando Alonso seem capable of challenging him this season. But over 24 legs? That seems less likely.
2. Charles Leclerc be back on winning form?
With a new long-term contract and restated ambitions, Charles Leclerc is more than ever a man with a mission at Scuderia Ferrari: to take the team back to the top in Formula 1.
But with Sir Lewis Hamilton’s much heralded arrival at Ferrari next year, the Monegasque driver and tifosis’ darling needs to score points this year to establish himself as the leader in the Maranello firm.
Often among the fastest, if not THE fastest in qualifying, Charles Leclerc will need to replicate his one-lap domination over the whole race.
Although he took 5 pole positions and 6 podiums last season, Leclerc also had all sorts of mechanical problems and DNFs, leaving it to his teammate Carlos Sainz to win in Singapore, the only race Red Bull did not dominate in 2023.
So while the title would appear to be something of an impossible dream, Charles Leclerc will be looking to get back on top of the podium this year. His last victory was on July 10, 2022 at the Austrian GP in Spielberg.
3. Can Scuderia Ferrari be a red rag to the Bull?
Still under the guidance of Frédéric Vasseur, who has sparked a minor revolution in Maranello since his arrival last season, the Scuderia Ferrari hopes to be back in winning ways, on the way to challenging for the constructors’ grail in 2026.
With a 95% remodelled SF-24 that already seems more promising than the ill-fated SF-23, even if it is the only car, thanks to Carlos Sainz, to have managed to win a 2023 Grand Prix apart from Red Bull, the Italian team seems in a better position, along with Mercedes, to challenge the world champion team this year.
Definitely on the up, the Scuderia Ferrari is perhaps not ready to aim for a title yet, but seems to have what it takes to finish vice-champion, not only in the constructors’ championship, but also the drivers’ through Charles Leclerc. And then there will be Lewis Hamilton in 2025…
4. How will Lewis Hamilton handle his last season at Mercedes?
The announcement sent shockwaves through the world of F1. Before the 2024 season even started, seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton announced, by mutual agreement with Ferrari, that he would be joining the most legendary team in Formula One.
An obvious match, which definitely shuffles the cards, and leaves only one season for the British driver to bring a crown to his beloved Mercedes stable as a parting gift. The car is gradually coming back into contention for podiums, so Lewis Hamilton can legitimately hope for a better season than the last two, where he finished sixth then third.
But being up against Max Verstappen and Red Bull, Hamilton has a lot to do and will have to stay focused on the present, even if he expects to experience one of the greatest challenges of his already immense career: to hand Scuderia Ferrari the championship in 2025.
5. A 24-race calendar, yes or no?
Twenty-two legs last season, twenty-four this year. The Formula 1 calendar has never been so full. “When will they stop? Personally, I feel that a 24 Grand Prix schedule is not tenable, it’s too much,” said Bernie Ecclestone a few weeks ago.
“In my opinion, they would do better to remove some of the races, even though I am happy to see that the sport is continuing to grow worldwide.”
Whether the former Formula 1 CEO likes it or not, it is rumoured that the next few seasons could involve up to 25 races, with the addition of a Grand Prix in South Africa…
Meanwhile, this year, the legendary Monaco, Belgium, Great Britain, Japan and Brazil Grand Prix will be the season’s flagship races, as well as the Las Vegas event, on the calendar again after its return in 2023.
