On March 2, 2024, the lights went out on the Bahrain International Circuit, commencing the 2024 F1 season. However, this season got off to an interesting start. From Lewis Hamilton announcing his transfer to the Ferrari team to a case of sexual assault against Redbull team leader Christian Horner, there was a lot to discuss before the season even began. Let’s look at all the new changes (or lack thereof) for this exciting new season.
Starting with the legendary Lewis Hamilton, who shook the F1 world with a shocking announcement: in early February, Hamilton announced he would be moving from team Mercedes to Ferrari. This was incredibly unexpected, as Hamilton had been loyal to team Mercedes for 11 years, making the upcoming year his 12th year at Mercedes. According to Sports Illustrated, Hamilton states his reasoning for leaving the Mercedes team: “Hamilton’s decision to leave early highlights just how unhappy he was with the results of the 2022 and 2023 season.” Proven by Mercedes’ unsatisfactory results from the past two seasons, shown with Redbull taking almost every Grand Prix trophy home, with Max Verstappen winning 19 out of 22 races last season, while Hamilton won zero. F1 News also comments on Mercedes’s lack of outstanding results from last season, “The last couple of years have been brutally difficult for Hamilton to deal with. He lost the world championship.” This was a callback to the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, where Hamilton could have won a record-breaking 8th World Championship. However, his chances were squashed when Verstappen overtook Hamilton in the final lap, due to Mercedes’s car’s inability to keep up with Redbull’s incredible RB19 car. Hamilton, in a public statement, expresses his gratitude to the Mercedes team via social media, “as you all now know, after an incredible 11 years at Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team, the time has come for me to start a new chapter in my life and I will be joining Scuderia Ferrari in 2025.” Hamilton also expresses how difficult this decision was to make, but how it was time to take on a new challenge. “…But the time is right for me to take this step and I’m excited to be taking a new challenge.” Team Leader of Mercedes Toto Wolff also comments in an interview with F1 regarding Hamilton’s exit, saying, “How he framed it to me was perfectly understandable… he needed a new challenge and that he was looking for something else.”
A shocking revelation that also revealed itself this F1 season is Redbull chief executive Christian Horner being accused of sexual assault. Redbull investigated Horner confidentially for inappropriate conduct towards a female employee, announced on February 5th. Despite the investigation, Horner was permitted to work for the upcoming season and was cleared of any malpractice. AP News discussed the handling of this season as, “utterly bizarre. F1 and governing body FIA have both issued statements urging a quick resolution to the investigation … but neither entity is looking into the situation itself.” According to Bolt Burden Kemp, the day following the dismissal of the case, an anonymous email that allegedly contained messages from Horner and his female employee was leaked to media members and stakeholders of the F1 industry. The Gemini Project, which is a non-profit organization committed to ending sexual harassment, reviewed the contents of the email and called it “textbook sexual harassment” and added, “This sends a message that Formula One does not care about women, their safety at work, or sexual harassment.”
A surprising lack of change, however, was that all 20 drivers from the previous season are the same. This is incredibly odd as this is the first time this happened in F1, but many of these contracts are set to expire by the end of this season.
From Lewis Hamilton’s announcement of leaving to an oddly investigated case of sexual assault, this year is looking to be incredibly controversial for the racing world fraught with scandal and major shakeups. Seeing how the big players react to these considerable changes will be interesting.
