Formula One was in need of a quiet winter to recharge ahead of a record-breaking 24-race season that stretches from February to December.
Oh, how differently things turned out.
From a shock team principal exit to one of the biggest driver moves in F1 history — that won’t even happen until next year — the 2023-24 offseason has arguably been the wildest in the sport’s recent history.
In case you haven’t been paying attention, here’s a recap of all the major storylines before the start of preseason testing on Wednesday in Bahrain.
FIA opens – and quickly closes – investigation into Toto and Susie Wolff (Dec. 5-7)
Less than two weeks after the season finale in Abu Dhabi, the first major twist of the winter arrived when the FIA launched – then swiftly dropped – an investigation into a potential conflict of interest involving Susie Wolff, F1 Academy’s managing director and employee of Formula One Management (FOM), and her husband Toto Wolff, the Mercedes team principal.
The FIA said it was investigating an “allegation of information of a confidential nature being passed to an F1 team principal from a member of FOM personnel”, citing “media speculation”. Reports that rival team bosses had raised concerns about a possible conflict of interest were quashed when all 10 teams issued statements backing Wolff, prompting the FIA to announce it had closed the investigation.
The embarrassing climbdown was the latest in a long line of controversies involving Mohammed Ben Sulayem, the FIA president. Lewis Hamilton called the FIA’s actions “unacceptable”, while the Wolffs said they would reserve their legal rights, having only learned of the investigation through the media.
The sorry case proved to be another crack in the relationship between the FIA and the teams, stoking the political fire heading into the winter.
Guenther Steiner leaves Haas in surprise exit (Jan. 10)
As teams started to firm up dates and plans to launch their new cars in early January, the first surprise arrived when Haas announced Guenther Steiner had left the team.
Steiner was F1’s third-longest serving team principal, after Christian Horner and Toto Wolff, and built Haas from the ground up. He made its debut in 2016 possible, and later became a star in his own right through “Drive to Survive”, where his expletive-laden rants made him a surprise hit, and even led to a best-selling book, “Surviving to Drive.” (He’s already at work on a sequel.)
On-track success was much harder to come by as Haas slumped to last in the constructors’ championship in 2023, mired in the lower-midfield group with Williams, AlphaTauri and Alfa Romeo.
Behind the scenes, a split in opinion on the direction of the team led Steiner and team owner Gene Haas to mutually agree against a contract renewal, ending Steiner’s 10-year relationship with the team.
The decision cost Haas its most popular asset, but was one the team felt would put it in a better direction under a more engineering-focused leader, Ayao Komatsu, its former technical chief.
It’s a big change for Haas, one it felt necessary to stop its slide. Although it’s heavily managing expectations for the new season — it expects to start on the back foot due to the design calls made late last year — it has the long-term in mind under Komatsu.
Driver Kevin Magnussen said the changes at Haas felt “very positive”, and noted the success of teams like McLaren in having someone more heavily involved in the technical aspects of the car at the helm.
“Ayao is going to make changes, and he’s an engineer, he’s got very recent and a long run of experience in engineering in Formula One, very recent,” Magnussen said.
“We’ve seen some other teams that have made changes, put engineering at the forefront, and they’ve had great success by that. So yeah, great reason to be excited.”
Stake’s rebrand comes with a black and fluorescent green livery. (Courtesy of Stake F1)
New F1 team names go sponsor-heavy (Jan. 1-24)
There may have been no driver lineup changes between the two seasons — a first in F1 history — but there are some new names above the garage doors they’ll drive out of this Wednesday.
Alfa Romeo was always due to change its name for 2024 after the Sauber-run team’s partnership with the Italian manufacturer came to an end. And it was always anticipated its biggest sponsor, Stake, the crypto-betting company, would be involved. It just wasn’t clear to what extent.
The formal name, “Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber” was revealed in mid-December on the FIA entry list, only for the team to unveil its identity for the season on Jan. 1: Stake F1 Team. (At some races where it can’t be Stake due to local restrictions on gambling, it’ll be Kick F1 Team, after the Stake-owned streaming website.) The rebrand, complete with a black and fluorescent green livery, will only last two seasons before Audi’s arrival, foundations for which are already being put down.
If fans were disheartened by one new sponsor-heavy team name, they can’t have enjoyed the second. AlphaTauri also planned to rebrand for 2024, and was expected to be known as some variation of “Racing Bulls”. That was eventually shortened to “RB”, allowing for two new title partners — Visa and Cash App — to arrive, making the final name “Visa Cash App RB”.
The question of “what do we call the team?” has been asked constantly, with the answer either the acronym of “VCARB” or simply “RB”, depending who you talk to. Regardless, the team insists the new identity is part of a wider fresh start.
“It feels like we can actually really grow this thing and develop something pretty awesome,” Daniel Ricciardo told The Athletic at the launch of the new car. “Time will tell if that’s a quick thing or if it’s a process over the course of a few years. But I think it’s really time for all the others to take this team seriously.”
Leclerc and Norris lock in their futures (Jan. 24-26)
The ‘silly season’ rumor mill for F1’s 2025 grid was always expected to be wild, but some early renewals briefly gave a false sense of stability in the driver market.
Charles Leclerc was the first high-profile driver who was out of contract for 2025 to lock in his future, announcing a new deal with Ferrari. No contract length was specified, only that it covered “several more seasons.” It was no great surprise, given how much Ferrari has invested in Leclerc through his career and its unwavering belief he has what it takes to win a world championship.
Two days later, McLaren announced Lando Norris had signed a new long-term deal, again not specifying length. Norris’s contract had not been due to expire not until the end of 2025, yet there had been recurring links to Red Bull and becoming Max Verstappen’s next teammate that refused to go away.
Norris said it was an “easy decision” to stay with McLaren and that “nothing from any other side was convincing enough to ever want to make me have even a proper look at another team.” Clearly, he’s very much at home and happy.
Leclerc and Norris locking in their futures didn’t come as any major surprise, yet they were important steps in the driver market that, unbeknownst to the wider world, already had the fuse lit for something far bigger.
Both Lando Norris (left) and Charles Leclerc (right) signed contract extensions this offseason. (Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)
F1 rejects Andretti’s bid to join the grid in 2025 or 2026 (Jan. 31)
A resolution to end one of F1’s longest-running sagas, surrounding Andretti Global’s bid to join the grid in the coming years, was always expected over the winter. And the expected rejection from Formula One Management arrived at the very end of January.
Since the FIA approved Andretti’s proposal to enter an 11th team in October, it was over to F1 to make the final call. The existing 10 teams had always been lukewarm to expansion, citing the potential financial instability that could follow, and F1 itself never seemed enthusiastic about the idea. Andretti had been pushing on with its preparations regardless. The Athletic revealed in January that over 120 people were part of the F1 project and Andretti already had a car in the wind tunnel despite lacking an entry.
F1 confirmed the rejection along with a lengthy assessment document that questioned the value of expanding the grid to Andretti (and said Andretti never replied to an invitation to meet), but did leave the door open to a potential entry in 2028 when General Motors plans to build a power unit. Andretti and General Motors fired back, saying they “strongly disagree” with F1’s findings, and that work “continues at pace.” It also later revealed it never received F1’s invitation for a face-to-face meeting, which was sent via email and ended up going into a spam folder.
It’s a political story that still has some way to run, and left many fans with a sour taste. But the attention of the F1 world was about to jolt in a very different direction.
Lewis Hamilton signs Ferrari deal for 2025 (Feb. 1)
This will go down as the “where were you when you found out?” moment of F1’s 2024 preseason.
Lewis Hamilton’s shock decision to join Ferrari from 2025, having only signed his latest contract last August, rocked the sport. Hamilton informed team principal Toto Wolff on the morning of Jan. 31 that he would be triggering a release clause at the end of 2024, one year into the two-year deal.
The first public rumblings emerged late that night before gathering speed the next day, leading to Mercedes and Ferrari making their announcements on the evening of Feb. 1. It later emerged talks had been ongoing for several weeks, and that Leclerc was aware prior to signing his own contract.
It’s the biggest driver move in F1 history, linking the sport’s most famous and successful driver with its most famous and successful team. It is also one that has left so many lingering questions going into the new season, adding a myriad of fresh subplots.
There’s the question over how Hamilton’s final season with Mercedes will go. The team is managing expectations going into the new year despite a shift away from its troublesome car concept of the past two years. But there will inevitably be direct comparisons between Mercedes and Ferrari’s form, and whether Hamilton has made the right move.
Mercedes also has to manage the inevitable awkwardness the final months of the season will bring, when Hamilton is gradually phased out of meetings about the future. George Russell is also bound to increasingly step into a team leader role to get ready for 2025. Then, it has to fill Hamilton’s place, a decision that will have its own ripple effects.
Regardless of the competitive picture at the front of F1 in the next two years, Hamilton’s final season at Mercedes and first season at Ferrari are guaranteed to bring plenty of drama.
Christian Horner faces Red Bull investigation (Feb. 5)
The final (we think) big story of F1’s offseason arrived on Feb. 5, when news emerged that Red Bull F1 chief Christian Horner was the subject of an investigation over alleged inappropriate behavior. Horner denied the allegations.
Red Bull GmbH, Red Bull Racing’s parent company, said it took the allegations “extremely seriously” and appointed an independent barrister to oversee the case. Horner participated in an all-day hearing in London on Feb. 9, but there was no subsequent announcement or resolution.
Horner appeared at the launch of Red Bull’s new F1 car last week, saying he was “absolutely committed” to the team and that it was “business as usual” for him. On four separate occasions in a 10-minute media session, he moved to deny the allegations, but said the process had to run its course and could offer no further details.
Neither Red Bull GmbH or Red Bull Racing has issued any further details regarding the investigation. A spokesperson for Red Bull GmbH told The Athletic last week “it would not be appropriate for us to comment before the investigation is completed.”
So long as the process is ongoing and uncertainty over Horner’s future remains, the investigation poses an inevitable distraction to Red Bull’s preseason preparations.
(Lead image of Guenther Steiner, Lewis Hamilton and Christian Horner: David Davies/PA Images/Alamy Images/Sipa USA, HOCH ZWEI/Sipa USA via Getty Images)
