By: Jocelyn Knorr

Hello, y’all, and welcome back to Formula One! The new season started on Saturday, March 2, for us Americans, kicking off with the Bahrain GP; strap in folks, because we’re in for quite a season!

First of all, I would be remiss not to mention the, frankly, chaotic pre-season. Personnel changes, shock driver moves, and social media rumors, oh my!

We’ll go in chronological order; first, Steiner’s departure. It was, in fact, a firing, not a voluntary resignation—in a January interview with Formulaone.com, he revealed that he wasn’t even allowed to say a proper good-bye to the team. Ayao Komatsu has now been promoted to Steiner’s former position. It’s understood that the change in personnel was implemented because of Haas’ standings—since their founding in 2016, they’ve been consistently at the bottom of the pack. Plagued by money troubles and rather suboptimal choices of drivers (looking at you, Mazepin,) Steiner has helmed this little team since its inception. Perhaps Gene Haas simply thought it was time for a change.

Another shock change of personnel, Hamilton announced shortly before the beginning of the season that he would be leaving the team with which he has won six of his seven world championships, Mercedes. His team of choice? Ferrari. There are many theories behind this shift, the two most popular being the mechanical problems at Mercedes and the prospect of a last hurrah. For their part, both are fairly credible; Mercedes has struggled in the last few seasons, ever since the new regulations came into effect, with Hamilton winning his most recent race in 2021 at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit. That’s a long way to fall for the man who holds the most world championships, and perhaps he’s looking for an out. The other theory rests on Hamilton’s long tenure in the sport; he’s 39, practically geriatric for a professional sportsman. He’s stated for a while now that he’s wished to live up to this childhood dream—he grew up in Ferrari’s heyday, watching Michael Schumacher bring home trophy after trophy. Perhaps he regards it as his last chance. For my part, I posit that it’s a mix of both; whatever the case, I wish Lewis Hamilton good luck in his future endeavors.

We must turn, now, to something far more serious. Christian Horner has been accused  of harassment by a female employee who has chosen to remain anonymous. I dislike the way many people have filed this under the category of “silly season drama;” this is a serious case of workplace harassment, if it’s true, and should be unacceptable under any circumstances. Nevertheless, I feel I have the duty to inform you that Red Bull launched an investigation in early February into these complaints; all charges were dropped on the 28th, and the young woman who accused him has been suspended as a result. Horner has since been allowed to resume his position as team president. However, as of the 29th, several emails have been sent, purportedly containing messages between Horner and his accuser. There were 79 images in all, all sent to reporters, top officials at Red Bull, and other Formula One staff; Red Bull Racing has stated that the veracity of the emails cannot be verified.

Alright, onto the actual season! When the lights went out at the Bahrain international circuit, many things happened at once. Max Verstappen got away well, shutting the door on Charles Leclerc, who tried for the outside line; by the 15th lap, he was leading by 25 seconds. This does rather appear to be back to business as usual for Red Bull Racing—we’ve picked up almost precisely where we’ve left off last year, which must be handy for new viewers. Indeed, we have the same top four teams as last season; Red Bull, Mercedes, Ferrari, Mclaren. It was almost exactly a race from last year–it turned out to be a Red Bull one-two, with the third slot on the podium filled by Carlos Sainz.

Now, that last one is a bit of a shocker. In years past, Sainz has kept his nose relatively clean—he’s usually been hesitant to get into dustups with Leclerc, always respectful of the engineers and never making too much of a fuss about always playing second fiddle to Leclerc. However, now that he no longer has a seat for 2025—confirmed by Ferrari—he seems ready to get out his elbows and prove himself to whoever else will be taking up his contract.

Also fairly typical of races in the early season, there appears to be a variety of mechanical problems happening. Williams is the most affected, with Alex Albon having to slow down considerably to counteract an overheating engine. There were also rumors of Sargent’s car changing settings by itself; personally, I would recommend an exorcism. Leclerc also was combatting a brakes issue, facing perpetual lockups on his front right. Mercedes also faced a power unit issue, affecting both George Russell and Hamilton. All in all, it was a mostly unsurprising start to the season, but I am very much looking forward to watching things develop!