The 7 deadly sins that F1 must avoid in 2024!

To meet expectations, the 2024 exercise of the world championship of Formula 1 will have to hunt some demons and avoid traps.

With 19 successes in 22 GPs, Max Verstappen disgusted the competition and killed all suspense in 2023. / © DPPI

The gluttony of Red Bull

The gluttony, or rather the gluttony, of Red Bull Racing, winner of 21 of the 22 Grands Prix in 2023, could cause great indigestion among fans and cause a crumbling of the TV audience in the event of a recurrence. The risk is that the team from Milton Keynes (United Kingdom) and its star driver Max Verstappen, buoyed by a successful 2023 season, feel unbeatable and inflict a new correction on the competition in global vision. The Anglo-Austrian team has never had a taste for duels that are too close, or victories down to the wire. What she loves most is crushing the competition. His gargantuan appetite and his immoderate thirst for domination pose a threat to the 2024 championship. The greatest threat of all.

After eight Manufacturers’ titles in a row, Mercedes Benz has only won one race in two years. / © DPPI

Mercedes' jealousy

Two seasons of rage! Two seasons experienced very badly by the Brackley team (United Kingdom) which, after eight World Constructors' championship titles between 2014 and 2021, could not bear the eclipse of its star. In a hurry to erase the injustice that was the loss of the “Drivers” title by Lewis Hamilton in Abu Dhabi in 2021, it plunged into crisis. His repeated failures to try to regain his place at the top will only increase this frustration which breeds jealousy. Jealousy which is not a good advisor. We need a strong Mercedes team so that osmosis reigns in the F1 galaxy and the star Hamilton shines again.

Classic Ferrari for sale, through Carlos Sainz in Singapore, was the only team to bring down Red Bull in 2023. / © DPPI

The pride of Ferrari

This excess of vanity, this self-satisfaction which leads one to believe oneself all-powerful, Scuderia Ferrari has sometimes – often even – developed during its long existence. A sin of pride more or less present in Maranello (Italy) depending on the managers in charge of sports management, which has always been the sneaky enemy of the men and women in Red. For a year, thanks to the personality of the new owner, he has disappeared in favor of this humility which does not mean erasure. Frédéric Vasseur, a man of the inner circle with his feet firmly anchored in reality, knows what it takes to work, self-sacrifice and esprit de corps to establish himself at the highest level. Arrogance is not one of them, but we must remain vigilant.

Alpine been treading water for years. / © DPPI

The idleness ofAlpine

There is no laziness in enstone (United Kingdom) and even less idleness in Viry-Châtillon (Essonne), but the two branches ofAlpine finally united must overcome this feeling of idleness, this impression of inaction which last year seemed to prevail. Too much morgue at the head of the building, too much tension in the ranks, the ship Alpine has too often given the impression of being an impossible-to-maneuver supertanker. The arrogance of Captain Laurent Rossi, the lack of determination of the second Otmar Szafnauer, the overly exacerbated rivalry between the two English and French entities meant that the ship lost its course. A course which must imperatively be found for the good of Formula 1, the Group Renault being one of its pillars since 1977.

Despite the solid arguments presented by Andretti and Cadillac, the FOM continues to be choosy / © Cadillac media

The greed of the FOM

He always needs more! No more Grand Prix, no more excess, no more dividends to satisfy the desires of the commercial rights holder; which is in the nature of business but nonetheless raises some questions. This season, the calendar will reach the record number of 24 meetings (plus 6 Sprints...), on the way to 25, the unspoken objective undoubtedly being to flirt with 30! A gentle madness going hand in hand with increasingly fierce competition between promoters constantly forced to rise to the level of standards that are ever more difficult to achieve. Nothing is too demanding today to defend the “franchise” model which prevents Andretti-Cadillac to join the grid. The FOM is keen to keep the latter at 20 cars to preserve the advantages acquired by each one while 24, or even 26, would be in the sporting interest. Refusing to find the right balance could ultimately have serious repercussions.

The free electron style of Mohammed Ben Sulayem at the head of the FIA ​​only moderately pleases Toto wolff, victim of accusations of conflict of interest at the end of the season. / © DPPI

The outburst of the FIA

A humiliating backpedal following suspicions of exchange of information between the Wolff couple, a recent wave of departures: the last few weeks have generated new questions about the leadership of President Mohammed Ben Sulayem, who has been involved in a series of controversies since his election in December 2021. Embarrassing controversies for an institution exposing the direct management of its leaders in search of the slightest pretext – even fallacious – to show that they exist and that they have not abandoned their standoff with Liberty for control of F1. If showing that the FIA ​​is not just a moral guarantee is the President's great design – indeed laudable –, choosing more or less hidden conflicts is more than questionable. Anger is an instinctive emotional reaction which prevents any control, and the rotting relations between sporting power and the FOM are a layer of Damocles on F1.

Liberty Media only seems to be interested in urban races, certainly spectacular but without soul or cachet. / © DPPI

The excesses of Liberty Media

The frantic search for the spectacular with a capital “S” is in the process of erasing this other big “S” which is that of sport. Barely used, the new Grand Prix standard put in place in Miami (Florida) in 2022 was swept away by the new new standard released in Las Vegas (Nevada) last year. In the land of shows at all costs and easy pleasures, it was an overly painted F1 that walked the famous “Strip”, giving a glimpse of what F1 will be like in the next decade and even before. Today, the time is no longer for the organization of Grands Prix but for events each having their own specificity. This is undoubtedly a good thing, but on condition that we keep what unites them: the world championship! We should not ultimately talk more about the winner of this or that grandiose event as Liberty knows how to stage than about the winner of the championship, as is the case in IndyCar with the Indianapolis 500 for example.