Max Verstappen was once again announced as the World Champion of Formula One in 2022 and Red Bull was named the Constructors Championship champion. The upcoming season seems intriguing and might be extremely entertaining. Since last year, there were numerous seats available for incoming ‘rookies’. Sebastien Vettel retired, and Fernando was able to fill his vacant seat at Aston Martin. We also said goodbye to Mick Schumacher and Daniel Ricciardo but they won’t be gone from the sport completely since they were both named as the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One team and Oracle Red Bull Racing’s reserve drivers, separately. There are going to be a lot of changes, not only in regard to the drivers but with team principles as well. From August to December 2022, ‘Silly Season’ persisted as we observed a significant change in the team’s principles. Furthermore, Formula One announced a 23 races calendar for the 2023 season, unlike last season’s race calendar, which consisted of 22 races. Three Grand Prix races in America will be held with the addition of a new track in Las Vegas. In addition, F1 announced the withdrawal of the French GP and the comeback of the Chinese Grand Prix, which had been dropped from the schedule due to COVID-19 regulations. However, Circuit de Monaco and Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps and Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez have extended their race track to 2025/26. The first race will be on March 5th 2023 in Bahrain, where we will hear those amazing words, “It’s lights out and away we go…”
What are the Changes in the New F1 team Principles?
Charles Leclerc missed out on the title despite having every chance to do so due to Ferrari’s poor racing strategy throughout the season. As a result, Mattia Binotto departed the team and Fredric Vasseur, who performed as Alfa Romeo’s team principal for the previous five years took his position. While still having ties to Formula One, Andreas Seidl is currently the CEO of the Sauber Alfa Romeo corporation. Since the 2015 season, Andrea Stella has been a key member of the McLaren team and he was announced as the new team principal. Williams and Alfa Romeo are the two teams left with no team principle announcements yet. Both Mercedes and Redbull team principles will stay the same since both teams have a strong sense of teamwork.
Team Principles for Each Team:
- Oracle Red Bull Racing (Christian Horner)
- Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula one team (Toto Wolf)
- McLaren ( Andrea Stella)
- Scuderia Ferrari (Frédéric Vasseur)
- Alpine ( Otmar Szafnauer)
- AlphaTauri (Franz Tost)
- Aston Martin (Mike Krack)
- Haas (Guenther Steiner)
- Williams (TBD)
- Alfa Romeo (TBD)
There are 10 Teams and 20 Drivers This Season:
- Oracle Red Bull Racing ( Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez)
- Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One team (George Russell and Lewis Hamilton)
- McLaren (Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri)
- Scuderia Ferrari (Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc)
- Haas F1 Team (Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen)
- Williams Racing (Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant)
- Scuderia AlphaTauri (Nyck De Vries and Yuki Tsunoda)
- Apline F1 team ( Pierre Galsy and Esteban Ocon)
- Alfa Romeo Racing ( Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu)
- Aston Martin (Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll)
SEASON FIVE ‘DRIVE TO SURVIVE’:
Formula 1: Drive to Survive, a well-liked Netflix series, has been renewed for a fifth season, which will debut on February 24th 2023. The backstage operations of the grid and each ‘race week’ are documented in this series, as they were in previous seasons. This season will also capture certain drivers’ maiden victories. It looks into the professional backgrounds of all 20 Formula One drivers, as well as the team officials and team principles. Further, the show will examine any disparities between drivers that emerged during the season, such as the intense animosity between Max and Sergio, which may be the main topic of the show. The most anticipated aspect of the series is seeing Max Verstappen after he decided to break his three-year boycott together with Lewis Hamilton as the two drivers discuss their “fake rivalry” with the producers. Additionally, there has been a significant amount of tension between team principles and drivers, such as Alpine and Oscar Piastri and McLaren and Daniel Ricciardo, which the show may explore this season.