Brundle: Every position on every team has its own story

Martin Brundle, commentator on the Sky Sports channel, states before the start of the new season that the contracts of most drivers in the championship expire at the end of 2024 and that the news of Lewis Hamilton’s upcoming transfer to Ferrari has already become a big hit . a kind of catalyst for the processes that take place in the driver market.

Riders who do not have a confirmed contract for 2025 will feel both a serious threat and interesting opportunities to continue their careers.

Let’s hope Sergio Perez can regain the confidence and form he showed a year ago in Jeddah and Baku, when he managed to pass Max Verstappen and stay in front.

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri drive for McLaren and it is a nice combination. Oscar is waiting for his second year in Formula 1, and I think these two drivers will now actively push each other.

I expect that at Mercedes George Russell will gradually start to emerge from Lewis Hamilton’s shadow. I believe he has all the necessary qualities to take the next step and take on the role of team leader as the season progresses. And Mercedes will try to show sponsors and fans that George is very capable of leading the team – these are now the priorities of this team.

Can Daniel Ricciardo at Visa RB really prove that he has regained his former strength, and how good is this team’s new car? Will Fernando Alonso maintain the same motivation now that he is in his 40s?

If Williams fails to make significant progress, I imagine that Alex Albon, regardless of his contractual situation, will start thinking about a move to one of the factory teams. And Logan Sargent will have to work hard to keep his place.

In general, every place in every team has its own story.

Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari is a real gift, which will continue to bring interesting developments. This is great for both Formula 1 and Lewis himself. We will see the benefits associated with this as early as 2024. even before trying on the Scuderia uniform.

I believe Carlos Sainz will feel the spirit of freedom in his last year at Ferrari. Now he finds himself in a very unusual situation. But when a driver knows he has to say goodbye to the team, he is given freedom in a sense. He realizes that other teams are looking at him and starting to analyze everything: are you having accidents several races in a row? Is your teammate regularly ahead in qualifying? Or is it the other way around and are you ahead of him? We can say that all your previous achievements are no longer taken into account, and now every lap, every qualifying and race is subjected to precise analysis.

Carlos is a world-class driver, he won last year, and at some point he will start thinking about himself and racing for himself. On the one hand, the upcoming farewell to Ferrari upsets Sainz, on the other hand I think this season could be the best of his career.

But this is possible only if he does not give in to despair and wants to show the whole world that the team made a terrible mistake. But just like in any other sport, in such a situation you may overexert yourself, or something may go wrong and you may not feel completely comfortable behind the wheel of your car.

But that is the nature of Formula 1: on the one hand it is a world-class sport, on the other hand the number of key players in it is very small, and they are all concentrated 300 or 400 meters from the paddock. . And these people somehow know how to respond to what’s happening here.

At some point you will realize that you are no longer invited to meetings with the engineers on the team. No one will tell you that the turning point has come and from now on you become persona non grata. But you begin to notice that they no longer share detailed information with you about technical innovations, no longer invite you to certain meetings and no longer allow you to work on the simulator.

This is an awkward situation where you get the feeling that the team is only paying attention to your partner, and people look away when they meet you. I felt that myself at Benetton in 1992, when it became clear that Riccardo Patrese would take over my place next season. You may even start to imagine something that isn’t really there. But you feel like you’re no longer part of that team, no matter what your next choice is.

Ultimately, racers are people too and they experience emotions too. You know you are going to be fired, but at the same time you have to persevere for another year to best complete the tasks ahead of you – anyone can be in a similar situation. Now imagine tens of millions of fans watching us…

On the racing side, I hope that the teams can close the gap with Red Bull and that team’s dominance comes to an end. Unfortunately, the test results indicate the opposite, but the tests only took place on one specific track and in warm weather conditions, so we’ll see how things go.

So far it seems that Red Bull remains in the lead, but Ferrari is already catching up. I’ve spoken to a lot of people since the tests ended, and everyone has the impression that Mercedes, Aston Martin and McLaren are almost at the same level – let’s hope they can also close on the heels of the Scuderia.

It looks like Alpine and Haas are having some problems. Williams are looking good, but so far they haven’t been able to take a noticeable step forward, even if they expected it. They still need to understand the features of the new car. That leaves Visa RB and Sauber – both teams are making a more or less decent impression, and it cannot be ruled out that they will also regularly participate in the battle for points.

Many teams have made significant changes to the design of their cars, knowing that upgraded versions of the same cars will be used in 2025, as all efforts, all resources and all money within limited budgets will be spent on developing a completely new car for 2026. That is why the coming season is so important: everything that the championship participants achieve this year will largely determine the picture for 2025.