With preseason testing wrapping up, it is almost lights out and away we go for the first time of the Formula 1 season.
Bahrain is the first stop of 24, where the drivers will go head to head on March 2, with race day being on a Saturday. As the tires get warm, and the anticipation rises, it is important to take a look at the biggest questions that surround last year’s top five constructors.
Red Bull
Can Max Verstappen repeat his historic season?
This may be the most important question of the entire sport due to the implications it has on the rest of the grid.
Verstappen broke his own record for single wins in a season where he won 86% of the races that he participated in. He was nothing short of dominant. 19 wins in a single year is something that this sport has never seen before.
Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton are regarded as the sport’s best racers of all time. Schumacher’s most wins in a season were 13 when he did it in 2004, and Lewis Hamilton’s was at 11, a number he achieved in four different seasons.
Red Bull improved their car from 2022 to 2023, and it will be terrifying for the grid if they continue that into 2024.
Mercedes
Does the Hamilton era end in great fashion?
No driver has won more races with one constructor than Sir Lewis Hamilton.
From 2014 to 2021, Mercedes was at the top of the sport with Hamilton at the helm. Ever since the infamous loss at Abu Dhabi in 2021, things have not been the same for the 7-time World Champion.
He has gone winless in the last two seasons which has not happened since… ever.
Losing is a feeling that Hamilton is not used to, which could have played a factor in his inevitable departure to Ferrari in the 2025 season.
Mercedes Team Principal and CEO, Toto Wolff, still seems to have a positive relationship with Hamilton and both are focused on getting back to winning ways this season. No better way to leave a constructor than going out with a win – just ask Nico Rosberg.
Ferrari
Can Charles Leclerc get back to the podium consistency?
The 2023 season was disappointing for most drivers not named Max Verstappen, but especially for Charles Leclerc.
After nine pole positions in 2022, 311 laps lead, and three race wins, there were high hopes for the Monegasque in 2023.
Unfortunately all of those numbers dropped dramatically. Five pole positions, zero race wins, and only 41 laps lead was not the season Leclerc had anticipated. That could be due to several different factors including a new team principal, the dominance of Red Bull, and just being unlucky.
With another year under Fred Vasseur, Leclerc will look to get back to his 2022 season form where he notched double digit podiums and finished second in the World Championship.
McLaren
Can Zak Brown continue to build off their second half success?
It was a disappointing first half of the season for McLaren in 2023 as the team was having issues with the MCL60, although it seemed to have improved vastly during the British Grand Prix where Lando Norris notched his first podium of the season.
The exciting young duo of 24-year-old Norris and 22-year-old Oscar Piastri showed flashes of their potential in the second half of the season, where both drivers were represented on podiums in consecutive races from Japan to Qatar, a feat only done by Red Bull.
The uncertainty surrounding Mercedes and Ferrari could spell success for McLaren.
Aston Martin
Will Lance Stroll take another step forward?
A hand injury to Lance Stroll did not hinder him from being able to race last year, as the 25-year-old was able to finish his highest in the World Championship of his career at 10th.
Stroll finished with more than four times as many points as he had in 2022, a successful season for the Canadian who has been racing in Formula 1 since 2017.
Teammate Fernando Alonso had a hot start with five podiums in the first six races but Aston Martin took a step back in the middle of the season.
Like McLaren, the British-based squad started to pick up speed towards the tail end of the season, including Stroll who finished fifth in two of the last three Grands Prix.
Father time has not caught up to Alonso yet, and if Stroll can cut down on the DNF’s, the Aston Martin pairing could be fighting at the top of the Constructors’ Championship.