The more things change, the more things stay the same. Seldom has the aphorism coined by Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr (or, for that matter, Jon Bon Jovi, if you’re feeling lowbrow) been more true in the Formula 1 world. Let’s start with the cover price of this issue of GP Racing, £7.99. We hope the product’s additional girth – an extra 24 pages of season-preview wholesomeness – offsets any fury you may have experienced when you clocked the price label. Imagine how much Ferrari will have to whack on the sticker of an F8 to claw back the additional financial load of Lewis Hamilton’s annual stipend… Don’t worry, we’ll be back to the regular price and page count next month. Phew!
I write this in the immediate aftermath of the team launches, a period fraught with sensations of mild disappointment these days since the majority of ‘reveals’ consist of the previous year’s car with a new paint job. Much of the intrigue has surrounded the new game of how little actual paint a team can get away with, so challenging is it to engineer a car under the weight limit. The need to maintain some secrecy is understandable but, as we explore on page 46, convergence is biting rather quickly in this budget-capped era since pragmatism naturally trumps adventure. There are fewer big surprises on the tech front.
Little movement in terms of the cast list, too, at least for this season. Every driver remains where they were at the end of 2023; what’s remarkable is that this is the first time these circumstances have arisen since the world championship began in 1950. We delve into the reasons for this on p34.
Slip into Toto Wolff’s tasselled loafers for a moment. The contractual business of preparing for a new season was a diminishing speck in the rear-view mirror as he looked forward to a breakfast meeting with his multiple world champion. Did Lewis break the news that he was off to Ferrari for 2025 before or after comestibles were served? Doubtless Toto was left to prong several moody forkfuls as he ruminated over who might be available. As he would later confirm in an online press conference, the conversation with Lewis happened about six weeks too late, since the most immediately obvious candidates (he mentioned no names, but he meant Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris) had been pre-emptively taken off the table on a long-term basis.
It was ever thus in the world of the Piranha Club, as Ron Dennis memorably described F1’s political sphere. See also the way the teams have closed ranks around the honey pot rather than admit a new team which might dilute the share (see page 8). Yes indeed, the more things change the more they stay the same…