Lewis Hamilton to Ferrari in 2025

The month of February was not even 24 hours old when we learned that 7-time F1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton will leave Mercedes and drive for Ferrari, beginning in 2025. Some have labeled the move as a ‘shocker’. But I for one saw it as inevitable. It was just meant to be. All the signs were there; he’s nearing the end of his career, he’s still driving at an elite level, the Mercedes car just hasn’t had the dominance and has struggled with pace in recent years, Red Bull and Max Verstappen don’t appear to be slowing down, and most importantly…it’s Ferrari! The most storied marque in racing! I can’t think of a more perfect ending to his career than to get his eighth world championship, the most all-time, driving the famous Italian red car with the screaming ‘tifosi’ cheering him on to the title. Go Lewis!   p.s…in today’s first and second practice rounds of the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend, Lewis has led the way and is on top of the charts. Who knows, maybe he has one more charge in him with Mercedes. I certainly hope so.

F1’s ‘Drive To Survive’ and the Christian Horner saga

Talk about timing. As lead-up to the 2024 Formula 1 season, Netflix launched the sixth edition of ‘Drive To Survive’ on February 13^th. This series has set the standard for sports documentary dramas. The newest 10-episode edition covers the 2023 F1 season and all the intra-team drama, along with following the season long battle for points between teams in the Constructors Championship. Leading into this season the unfolding drama in Formula 1 centered on Red Bull Team Principal, Christian Horner, and the allegation again him of some sort of impropriety with a female colleague. No details have ever been disclosed, yet it was announced yesterday, Wednesday, Feb.28^th, that he was cleared of all charges, just as the 2024 season is about the begin in Bahrain. One can only imagine that this will be a lead story for next year’s ‘Drive To Survive’. Horner has featured predominately in each of the six seasons, and at times has shown a prickly and cocky demeanor. It’ll be interesting to see how the writers and producers at Netflix weave this potential bombshell into the 2024 story.

NASCAR Starts Its Season

The NASCAR Cup season is well underway, and what a start it has been! William Byron won the Daytona 500 by an eyelash over his teammate Alex Bowman. It was an extremely popular win, with Byron well on his way to becoming an elite driver. This was his 11^th Cup Series win, and he’s only 26 years old. I anticipate there being many more wins in his career before he calls it quits. Fast-forward one week in Atlanta and Daniel Suarez wins in a thrilling three-wide photo-finish over Kyle Busch and Ryan Blaney. Unbelievable! It was Daniel’s second Cup win and first on an oval. 2024 is off with a bang, with only 34 races to go!  Buckle your seatbelts!   p.s….the season actually began on February 4^th with the running of the Busch Light Clash in the LA Coliseum. This was the last year of the contract for LA to host this popular non-points event. I certainly hope it goes back to Daytona where it began, and they establish the Speedweeks tradition that had worked so well in the past. The LA experiment failed.

TJ