The Mycenaean

This Formula One season has been one that will go down as one of the greatest and most chaotic in history. 

At the beginning of the season, all teams were hopeful about their new cars. With preseason testing in Bahrain, none of the cars had too many problems foreshadowing a successful season for all teams. 

There were many driver changes both during the season and at the end of the season making for a very chaotic season. With teams like Red Bull, McLaren, Mercedes, Ferrari, Kick Sauber, Haas, and Aston Martin keeping their current drivers all year, teams like Alpine, Williams,and  AlphaTauri replacing drivers mid season. 

Musical chairs 

At the start of the season, Alpine had the drivers Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly. As the season went on, Esteban Ocon got into a bad collision at the Qatar Grand Prix, causing him to sit out the last race of the season until he gets back to his new team seat at Hass next season. 

The Alpine formula one team decided to replace Ocon on the last race, Abu Dhabi,  with Jack Doohan, who is Alpine’s new driver for the 2025 season. 

For Williams, the season began with Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant as their drivers. As the season progressed Alpine realized that the driver Logan Sargeant was too much of a liability for them with an incident rate of more than one in three.

The Williams formula one team decided it would be best if they parted ways with Sargeant after his mid-season crash at the Dutch Grand Prix during practice. Sergeant was replaced by Franco Colapinto. 

AlphaTauri kicked off the season with Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo behind their wheels. As the season progressed AlphaTauri saw that Ricciardo was struggling and knew it would be best for the team to give their new driver Liam Lawson a shot.

With so many mid season driver swaps, it almost felt like the season was more of an elaborate game of musical chairs than a formula one grid. 

Big changes 

As the new season is now three months away, many drivers are out of a seat and many with new seats.

The biggest and most controversial change for next season is Lewis Hamilton’s switch to Ferrari. After 11 years with Mercedes, Hamilton announced on February 1 of the 2024 season that he would be joining Ferrari alongside Charles Leclerc. 

As Hamilton replaces Carlos Sainz at Ferrari, Sainz is now joining Alex Albon at Williams for the 2025 season. 

Again, since Hamilton has left his seat at Mercedes to go to a seat at Ferrari, the junior driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli is now promoted and will make his debut alongside George Russell at Mercedes at the start of the 2025 season. 

Finally, the Federation Internationale de L’Automobile has granted Cadillac, a new team, a spot on the grid for the 2026 season. This change could promote more chaos on and off the track and also maybe a more restrictive budget for the 2026 season. 

That’s a wrap

As the 2024 season is now over, drivers will start preparing for next season. The 2024 season was filled with loads of upsets including McLaren winning the Constructors Championship after a 26 year dry spell. 

Max Verstappen took home his fourth Drivers Champion, although a couple of drivers, Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris, gave him a run for his money. 

The 2024 Formula One season has been one for the books — filled with chaos, controversy, and a musical chairs game of driver swaps. 

As the 2025 season is three months away, Formula One fans everywhere wait in suspense for the new year.