By Rishi Bala ‘25, Sports Editor

Max Verstappen celebrating after his record-breaking 2023 season. (Image courtesy of Formula 1)

As we count down the days until the official start of the 2024 Formula 1 season in late February, the biggest question on every fan’s mind is if this season will be as one-sided as the last. 2023 was unquestionably the most dominant season in F1 history—Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen won 19/22 races and set dozens of records in the process. However, the new year brings along new cars and new opportunities for every other team to catch up.

Verstappen is still considered the heavy favorite to win the Driver’s Championship, and Red Bull Racing is the biggest contender to win the Constructors’ Championship, but we are almost guaranteed to see more of a fight from their competitors. McLaren, Mercedes, and Ferrari, for example, showed some improvement and began catching up to Red Bull near the end of 2023, and even the staunchest Verstappen fanatics are hoping to see this trend continue as competitive fights return to the pinnacle of motorsport.

McLaren, in particular, emerged as Red Bull’s biggest competitor towards the end of the year, with their rookie driver Oscar Piastri winning a shortened-format sprint race in Qatar. Lando Norris, their other driver, had several close battles with Verstappen, however, he often lacked the pure race pace to outcompete his opponent for titles in the end. Nevertheless, as Red Bull’s car development inevitably slows down and their competitors continue to improve, drivers like Norris or Piastri could end up winning some races.

Red Bull’s other major competitor at the top of the grid near the end of the year was Ferrari, Formula 1’s most historically successful team. Charles Leclerc, one of Ferrari’s drivers, routinely out-qualified Verstappen, although he too lacked the necessary pace to challenge him in races. Leclerc did, however, have several opportunities, nearly winning the Las Vegas Grand Prix in November and ultimately holding off Sergio Perez, Red Bull’s other driver, who was in a much faster car. Ferrari’s other driver, Carlos Sainz, seemed a bit slower than Leclerc by the end of the year, although he enjoyed some great success throughout the year and was the only non-Red Bull driver to win a race all year due to his incredible win in Singapore. If Ferrari can improve their car’s race pace and improve their general team strategy, they are sure to once again be a threat at the top of the grid.

Predicting the midfield and the backmarkers is a much harder task. While we can reasonably anticipate that Verstappen and Red Bull Racing will again win their respective championships this year, although they will likely face much more of a fight in the process, there is no consensus on who will come out as the best of the rest. Williams Racing, another extremely long-lasting team, climbed from last place in 2022 and made somewhat of a resurgence, finishing 7th in 2023, largely thanks to the efforts of their driver Alex Albon, who had a stellar season. However, it is really anyone’s guess as to which midfield or backmarker team will produce the best car and have the most success in 2024.

In the past few years, Formula 1, largely always thought of as a European sport, has grown extensively in the United States, including in our own Newark Academy community. Despite how one-sided many races in the 2023 season may have seemed due to Red Bull’s dominance, the sport is growing as fast as ever, with more races and more mainstream attention than ever before. Kabir Srivastav ‘25, one of NA’s racing enthusiasts, says that he cannot wait for this season and that he too hopes to see more of a title fight. Like Kabir, fans all around the world are patiently waiting for pre-season testing to begin on February 21, and for the first grand prix weekend of the season to start on February 29.