“Lewis Hamilton’s move has added a whole new dimension to the battle behind Red Bull”
How crucial is it that someone closes the gap to Red Bull?
There’s no doubt that neutral Formula 1 fans around the world were getting a bit bored of the dominance shown by Max Verstappen and Red Bull last season. It’s not their fault – they did the best job by far and it really is up to the others to catch up.
A little look at TV viewership, social media and forum engagement numbers shows that F1 peaked around the second half of 2021. That of course was one of the most extraordinary seasons of the past 74 years of the series, and not every year can be like that, but we still want to wake up on Sunday morning and genuinely not know who is going to win the race. That’s what gets people to tune in, and it’s what we lacked in 2023.
If you rewind two decades, Michael Schumacher and Ferrari had a superb battle with Mika Hakkinen in 2000, had some decent competition in 2001, and then crushed the opposition in 2002, which is a similar trend to the past three years with Max and Red Bull. The difference then of course was that Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley worked closely together to change the technical rules to break a dominant cycle, whereas the current infighting between F1 and the FIA, plus the power that the teams seem to wield over the series, prevents that from happening. Essentially, Liberty and F1 are counting on Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren and the rest to raise their game and take the fight to Red Bull.
It’s a big year for Mercedes after its first winless season in over a decade. Lewis Hamilton, the team’s biggest star, has given a ‘vote of no-confidence’ by leaving for its Italian rival even before he drove the W15 but, for this year at least, the team still has the best collective driver line-up in my opinion. The facilities and budget are top-notch, the trackside engineering and race team are as strong as ever, and therefore the pressure is on the design team to deliver the goods.
There were obviously some big changes at the top last year, with James Allison taking back the hands-on leadership role from Mike Elliott. James is a brilliant leader of a team, and his wealth of experience in the sport allied to his personal aero you’ve understood the problem, is the first big hurdle to cross but it sounds like Mercedes has done that.
