Hopes, expectations and excitement for 2024

[Born Racer]

Happy New Year, Ten Tenthers.

What are you hoping for, expecting and looking forward to in 2024?

I'll be attending the Japanese Grand Prix with Mrs Born Racer, so that's well up the list.

I echo probably everyone but perhaps some at Red Bull when I say I'd like to see someone challenge them. Presumably, they will be in contention, so it would be great to see a battle with them at the top. It would be a pity if Hamilton wasn't able to have a shot at an eight title, but being greedy, I'd like to see Ferrari, McLaren and maybe even Aston Martin in the mix for the title. A lot of that is hopes more than expectation, but it would be a surprise if at least one of those four teams wasn't able to win in addition to Red Bull.

The likeable Williams and Alex Albon continuing their ascendancy would be superb.

I'd like to see no problems with Andretti getting on the grid. The sport should have more teams. More and more.

Racing-wise, some consensus about penalties would be nice (e.g. how much do we penalise? Should it be a bit variable, for example at the discretion of different stewards and a bit random, or should it be tightly controlled?), as would less and less dependence on DRS.

[Aysedasi]

F1-wise, no great hopes. Unfortunately I suspect that MV will run away with it again, although I do hope that others will be closer more often, Lando in particular. My other desires are to hear the expletives 'track limits' less frequently and like you BR, to see the DRS abomination playing less and less of a role in GP racing.

My 2024 largely revolves around my eldest son's wedding in May and my desire to continue to lose some weight so as not to be asked to do Mr. Blobby impressions at the reception and - of course - my 38th Le Mans 24 Hours a month later.

[S griffin]

I hope for not another Max/RBR walkover and it to be a lot more open. Hope Russell and Leclerc can get back up there and also hope Lando can break his duck

[Richard C]

Hopes
• While I think RBR will continue to be the class of the field, I think there will continue to be some type of concertina or coalescence of solutions as more and more teams replicate solutions that they see others are using successfully. This should hypothetically erode the RBR gap and I hope to see RBR win fewer races in 2024 than in 2023.
• I hope Lando gets his first win.
• I hope Yuki settles down and provides more consistent high performance. I would like him to remain in the sport.
• I hope Sargeant shows that he should remain in F1.

Expectations
• While I think other teams will improve, I think RBR will have focused on increasing their operating window and having fewer situations in which their car is not the best (focusing on the weaknesses of the 2023 car). So, an evolved version of the 2023 car might be nearly impossible to beat over the course of a season even if more than one team has closed the size of the gap.
• Even if Perez improves next year, I expect he will continue to not be as consistent at Max and the ongoing whisper campaign of his future will continue to be a topic in the media.
• I expect there will continue to be FIA vs. FOM drama. Will MBS and FIA come out of 2024 stronger or weaker?

Excitement
• I am excited to see who closes the gap to RBR the most. Can McLaren keep up their momentum? Will Mercedes get it right or have another season in which they are on the back foot? What will a reworked version of Alpha Tauri (or whatever they will be called) look like as they pull closer to the mother ship? Will they get some of the 2023 RBR magic for their 2024 car?
• What happens with all the teams dragging around at the back of the field? Who moves up, who moves down?

Richard

[bathurst77]

Hopes
Mclaren continue to close in on RB and both Lando and Oliver score some wins
RBR say "fuggit" and put Danny in (Im an Aussie!!)
Dan gets a win or two.
Team "we arent Red Bull" say "well damn! and put Lawson in.

[Aysedasi]

Oliver?

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

Oliver?

Would love to see Panis get a second win. Especially at his age!

Richard

[Richard C]

Was just looking on Wikipedia and Olivier Panis was still racing professionally as late as 2020. Good for him.

Oscar may not minded being called Oliver as long as you don't call him late for dinner.

Richard

[V8 Fireworks]

Hopes: Max Verstappen, 4 x WDC, Red Bull Racing - Honda
Excitement: McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari to each challenge for multiple race victories!

[chillibowl]

hoping for a more active drivers market. while all 20 have been retained for the start of this season, apparently 13 of the drivers are coming to the end of their deals this season so looking forward to and speculating on the dynamics that brings to the table...even if nothing changes!

[bathurst77]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

Oliver?

Brain melt. Altzies kicking in

But maybe he is saying "Please sir, I want some more" (points podiums and wins)

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by bathurst77

Brain melt. Altzies kicking in

But maybe he is saying "Please sir, I want some more" (points podiums and wins)

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by Richard C

Was just looking on Wikipedia and Olivier Panis was still racing professionally as late as 2020. Good for him.

And ran his own team, of course....

[S griffin]

And now his son is racing

[Greem]

Hopes: other team(s) take it to RBR and produce some barnstorming races.

Expectations: RBR and Max walkover, again. FIA president keeps sticking his oar in. Hamilton retires. Andretti gives up on an entry.

Excitement:

Overall, I'm not expecting anything too different to 2023 TBH. I can't see any team really having a great lead over RBR although I do hope to stand corrected on that!

[Mike Harte]

Possibly one of your hopes plus excitement might be that you're in good enough shape to be able to marshal at the British GP, Graeme?

[Greem]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

Possibly one of your hopes plus excitement might be that you're in good enough shape to be able to marshal at the British GP, Graeme?

Ah. I've prepared for that already this year by deciding that I'm not volunteering for the British GP or Le Mans. I asked far too much of myself at LM last year and it's time to get myself properly right.

Bonus though: I can watch both live!

[Tourer]

I hope that we have good racing through the F1 field, not just in the mid-pack but I expect that for the most part, a team will get it "just right" and the others will be inconsistent.

I hope that all the commentators (not just some of them) on Sky give us quality race coverage but I expect that Crofty will still be shrieking, shouting, giggling and misreading the race whilst Ted stutters around.

I hope that I avoid the temptation to click on various click-bait F1 stories on social media but I expect that I'll fall for it and click on some of them.

I hope that drawn out political tensions between the FIA and various others in F1 get resolved and they all work for the good of the sport alone but I expect that tensions will continue, weird stuff will continue & elbows will be out.

Lastly, I hope that we see some damned fast race cars going hard and being awesome and despite the cumbersome nature of these current (ridiculously) heavy cars, I expect that we'll see exactly that - because despite all the gaps in performance, Crofty shrieks and FIA ham-fisted "control" antics, F1 is still nothing short of spectacular and I'm looking forward to visiting Albert Park again this year.

[P38 in workshop]

I hope we see at least three different teams winning races and I hope we see at least one more team allowed to enter in the near future.I hope there is a bit more planning regarding the logistics of cars and personnel zapping round the globe.

[flatlandsman]

Personally I hope the bubble bursts completely, people realise that F1 is just the emperors new clothes and that the racing and everything else does not really live up to the hype. But, erm, people are dumb. And erm well just people...

So I expect prices to rise, races to increase, Croft to become even more of an overpaid, fat moron and SKY to talk about one incident for 4 races will now be 6 as nothing interesting will happen. I find it staggering that F1 is so popular, I do not understand why, I fail to see the appeal, there are no rivalries the cars are dull as hell they sound awful and have for years, they look awful, the tracks are in the main miserable identikit dumps designed for sponsor reveue not fan immersion, the people running it are determined to make it into 00's NASCAR, the tv people think it's amazing when in fact 10 laps of a WEC race has more interest.


I am simply staggered by the recent success, it cant all be based on a tv show surely? Are people that easily led? To be conned out of hundreds of pounds to watch something from half a mile away, is it that easy?

One picture from last year told me all I need to know, thousands of idiots standing at the last corner at Silverstone with a track in front of them, and they were nearly ALL turned around away from the track to watch a screen behind them, so you paid 500 quid to watch tv on a bit of grass at an old airfield in the middle of nowhere, I mean is this the easiest money a venue ever made or what!

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by flatlandsman

I do not understand why

Yes. I agree.

I appreciate your opinion and can agree with some of your foundations (increased cost, etc.), but what a miserable post and a real downer in general. Maybe F1 is just not your thing if it makes you so unhappy?

Richard

[BTCC frog]

First and foremost, I desperately would like to see more competition at the front. The key to a great Grand Prix is from start to finish to not be quite sure who is going to win, and races like that were few and far between in 2023. There needs to be at least two teams with a chance of victory at any particular Grand Prix. Ideally, I would love to see another Max Verstappen vs Lewis Hamilton season. I have started to wonder if 2021 was the greatest season in Formula 1 history (even better than my other favourite, 1958) and would love another season like that, albeit ideally with a race director having more control but some controversy like Silverstone, Monza and Interlagos made it even more exciting, although Abu Dhabi was too far. Also, having disliked him during his dominant years, I have liked Lewis Hamilton more and more since he stopped dominating and now would love for him to win another title. That is my hope, but my expectation is another total dominance from Max Verstappen and Red Bull. I would like for Hamilton to put in a season that makes us all think he is still performing at his absolute peak, even if he doesn't win the title. But I also like George Russell and hope he has a good season to silence the critics as his 2023 was nowhere near as bad as many have suggested.

I also hope to see Charles Leclerc back at his best. I think he is the most exciting driver on the grid and really enjoyed some of his overtakes and daring driving in 2022, but thought he was very disappointing in 2023. On form, he should be well ahead of Carlos Sainz but they were quite even last year. Lando Norris is the only member of the younger generation who I believe may be able to challenge Verstappen in the same car but I actually don't want him to win a race because I think of him as the new Chris Amon, rather than Nick Heidfeld or Nico Hulkenberg. I hope he continues to prove he is one of the best on the grid without quite winning a race. I expect Oscar Piastri will have a good season although I don't think he will beat Norris. His 2023 season was massively overhyped in my opinion, but he does have potential. I hope that Norris signs for Red Bull in 2025 because I just think Perez was awful last year and has lost it.

Fernando Alonso is the other contender for most exciting driver so I would love for him to win a race and extend his Aston Martin contract. I am also intrigued to see the Alpine intra-team battle again. Last year, on the bus to Spa-Francorchamps, I was sat in front of a Verstappen fan and Gasly fan who both had an extremely intense and unhealthy hatred of Esteban Ocon which they expressed so many times throughout the journey that it just got weird, and since then I have found myself supporting Ocon a lot more so I hope he beats Gasly and has a great season, although I expect Gasly will have the upper hand. Bottas is another driver I support so hopefully he will comfortably outperform Zhou and get a whole host of points finishes, and I would like Kevin Magnussen to beat Nico Hulkenberg but don't think he will. At Alpha Tauri, I hope that Daniel Ricciardo regains his form and beats Yuki Tsunoda, but I doubt that will happen.

In terms of how F1 is run in general, there are still serious changes needed. It is frustrating that so much seems to be done to improve the show over sport, and yet last year was among the most boring in history. DRS continues to be a total abomination and the biggest problem with modern day F1. It has to go, as racecraft is an almost irrelevant skill for drivers today. There are too many safety cars and red flags (there should never be another 2023 Australian Grand Prix), and too many boring race tracks with walls or tarmac rather than grass and gravel outlining them. I have actually cooled off on sprint races because now they are separate from the rest of the Grand Prix weekend, I am able to just totally ignore them, but I would prefer if they weren't awarded points. The fastest lap point also needs to go. And please allow Andretti in!

In general, I think 2023 was a low year for motorsport in general. BTCC races were quite static, Formula e races too random and therefore forgettable, WRC needs more competitive cars, WEC is very exciting but feels slightly fake due to the BoP, IndyCar can sometimes be exciting but is often ruined by safety cars, and NASCAR has been a joke for a long time now. I hope and expect that 2024 will be better.

[V8 Fireworks]

Originally Posted by flatlandsman

Personally I hope the bubble bursts completely, people realise that F1 is just the emperors new clothes and that the racing and everything else does not really live up to the hype. But, erm, people are dumb. And erm well just people...

Could you elaborate?

Indycar has a better racing product, but the lack of technical development and political intrigue sees it with a far lower profile than Formula 1, even in the United States.

There aren't the high stakes of having the Italian national team, the French national team, the works Mercedes etc either...

Meanwhile, Formula 1 always turns on the stories, be it Red Bull budget cap breach, Ferrari (alleged) fuel flow cheating, Ferrari flexi-floor, Mercedes porpoising, Aston Martin flexi-front wing, Rossi & Permane out the door at Alpine, Binotto out at Ferrari, Piastri contract saga (albeit Indycar did have some similar sagas) etc etc etc...

By contrast, a series where the only things that teams can change are the shock absorbers and the engines & chassis are (more or less) twelve years old provides for little technical intrigue.

Even though the Formula 1 drivers are mostly boring racing nerds, Formula One management does an excellent job of promoting them. On paper, the World Rally Championship and MotoGP should be more exciting forms of motorsport, yet they are not as popular. (Arguably Red Bull as the promoter does a poor job of promoting the World Rally Championship, it seems far below its popularity peak in the late 90's and early 00's.)

WEC loses the technical competition aspect, because there is BOP that literally changes circuit to circuit, so you lose the aspect of pure technical competition to a set formula that you have in Formula One.

Originally Posted by flatlandsman

it's amazing when in fact 10 laps of a WEC race has more interest.

WEC is fake. Toyota built the best car yet are not allowed to win all the races, especially Le Mans with a severe adjustment against them a week before the race despite assurances from the ACO that BOP would be fixed until after Le Mans. That's silly isn't it?

Formula 1 may have a more prescriptive rule set but it provides for fascinating competition in the details of the aerodynamics -- having a suspension to provide a stable aerodynamic attitude, having an underfloor that with careful pressure distribution with minimal sensitivity to ride height, and using the sidepod shape to effective guide air over the topside of the car, now that the bargeboards from 2021 were removed.

Meanwhile in LMH and LMDh, the aerodynamic surfacing doesn't really matter as there is BOP to make downforce and drag identical anyway; it doesn't matter how good or bad, big or small your engine is either, you can just tune it up or down as needed (unless it's so uncompetitive like Vanwall that you have no hope anyway); so what's the point of it all?

I'd much rather WEC have a set formula like a 4.0L V8, all chassis and engines (including works cars) must be homologated and available to privateers for a low fixed price, and have at it as an engineering competition. If the Toyota-Toyota is the best and everyone buys one of those that's fine, if the Ferrari-Ferrari is the best and everyone buys one of those, that is also fine.

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by V8 Fireworks

WEC is fake. Toyota built the best car yet are not allowed to win all the races, especially Le Mans with a severe adjustment against them a week before the race despite assurances from the ACO that BOP would be fixed until after Le Mans. That's silly isn't it?

But last year's race was still better - by light years - than any F1 race last season....

To many, F1 has been a lot less than 'fascinating competition' for a number of seasons if you just want to watch good racing and aren't as hooked up on the technical side of things.... What's the point of it all? Racing, that's the point.

[Alan52]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

But last year's race was still better - by light years - than any F1 race last season....

To many, F1 has been a lot less than 'fascinating competition' for a number of seasons if you just want to watch good racing and aren't as hooked up on the technical side of things.... What's the point of it all? Racing, that's the point.

Le Mans is my favourite race in the world but in the end last year felt hollow.
Yes there was a lot of close,exciting competition but (and I’m not a Toyota fan) the way the ACO neutered Toyota was against everything the race has ever stood for.NASCAR came to Le Mans-and I don’t mean Garage 56.