The GIST: Start your engines because Formula 1 (F1) is officially back with the first of this season’s 24 Grands Prix (GP) hitting the track from Australia Sunday at 12 a.m. ET. The single point awarded for fastest lap might be gone, but the drama is just as spicy.
- New to the sport? Check out this F1 refresher before racing through today’s season preview.
Expect chaos with half the grid in new cars: Of the 20 total F1 drivers, six will be competing in their first full season while four will race with new teams. The rookies will have to adjust to much faster cars, while drivers swapping squads will be tasked with learning an entirely new system given every F1 car is unique. And milliseconds can make all the difference.
- Of the rooks, Haas’ Oliver Bearman and Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli are already turning heads. Fans received an early look at Bearman last season when he subbed for then-Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz, and Antonelli’s been billed as a racing prodigy.
- But nothing rocked the racing world quite like Lewis Hamilton’s move from Mercedes to Ferrari. A record-breaking eighth World Drivers’ Championship (WDC) is on the line as Hamilton aims to end Ferrari’s nearly two-decade title drought. Built different, indeed.
Five drivers expected to vie for WDC: Unlike last year, when Red Bull’s Max Verstappen dominated the first half of the season en route to his fourth straight WDC, this year’s title fight should be absolute cinema. Verstappen, the McLaren duo of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, and Ferrari’s Hamilton and Charles Leclerc are all in the mix to top the podium. Buckle up.