What a week we've had! I'm sure no one was expecting some of the news we'll be looking into in this post. Let's get a deeper insight on them:
Teams preparing as the Pre-season testing approaches
This week Ferrari has performed various tests in the actual circuit holding the Spanish Grand Prix, the circuit of Barcelona-Cataluña in Montmeló. We've been able to see Charles' brother and actual F2 driver, Arthur Leclerc, driving a Ferrari during those tests.
The funny thing about it is that a lot of fans noticed that Arthur was wearing the number 14 on his car, and this was the trigger to a lot of rumours about what number would be using Fernando Alonso, as he was using that same number in 2023.
Parallelly, Alpine has been able to pull off their crash tests, which they failed just a couple of weeks ago. This means that with less than a week before presenting publicly their car, they're ready to face the season.
Andretti's rejection to enter F1
The American team Andretti, which was in negotiations with the FIA and Liberty Media in order to enter the F1 competition in 2026, has been rejected, and they won't be able to enter F1 at least until 2028 or 2029.
The Formula One Management stated:
We do not believe that the applicant would be a competitive participant.
Andretti defended themselves arguing that Andretti-Cadillac are both exceptional companies, and that they'd be able to compete to the required level. Then we knew about that if Andretti had presented to an appointment, Formula One Management would have reconsidered the decision, but as the email "got into Andretti's spam folder" they weren't aware of that.
Now, the only hope for Andretti to enter "soon" to F1 is if they show off a really ambitious and competitive project before 2028 / 2029.
Giving new opportunities to young promises
Pietro Fittipaldi and Oliver Bearman, current F2 driver, have been announced to be the new reserve drivers for Haas upon this 2024 season.
In addition, Zane Maloney, the runner-up in 2022 in F3 with Trident, has also been announced to be Sauber (or Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber)'s 3rd driver, meaning he'll be replacing one of the drivers if they're missing.
Hamilton to be a Ferrari driver
It all came out of the blue. Lewis Hamilton, who has been 11 years at Mercedes, has announced that he will be driving from 2025 onwards with Ferrari, meaning that Carlos Sainz will no longer will be racing for the Italian team.
After the official announcement, Carlos Sainz said:
Following today's news, Scuderia Ferrari and myself will part ways at the end of 2024.
This departure and signing was completely unexpected and caught everyone by surprise. With a 100M€ salary, Ferrari will be having Lewis Hamilton in their 2025 line-up alongside Charles Leclerc.
The future of Carlos Sainz is uncertain, but his father says he will be racing in Madrid in 2026, we don't know for sure for what team though.
Changes to the future calendar
Alongside with Lewis Hamilton announcing his departure to Ferrari, the Australian GP X account posted an image that clearly let us know that the first race of 2025, that is, the race where Hamilton will make his debut with the Scuderia will be the Australian GP instead of the Bahrain Grand Prix.
In addition, the F1 official account has also confirmed that the Japanese Grand Prix will be held in Suzuka up until 2029 at the very least.
The beginning of the 2024 season
The events that start a F1 season are always the same. Teams presenting the cars they'll be racing with.
The first one was presented this Friday, 2nd February. Haas showed the car Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hülkenberg will be driving throughout the 24 races of this season.
However, this week we have a few more presentations of cars:
| Team | Presentation Date |
|---|---|
| Stake / Sauber | 5th February (Monday) |
| Williams | 5th February (Monday) |
| Alpine | 7th February (Wednesday) |
| Visa Cash App RB | 8th February (Thursday) |
With all of this said, I hope you have a nice week, and we'll come with more exciting news next week.
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Miguel, Co-owner of SBOF1