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After Lewis makes his debut for Ferrari in Australia, Max becomes the only F1 driver with 4 or more world championships who has not driven for Ferrari.

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Well, that's it. A new era in Formula 1 has officially begun.

Generation Zoomers in Formula 1:

🔸 Oscar Piastri - 06.04.2001
🔸 Liam Lawson - 11.02.2002
🔸 Jack Doohan - 20.01.2003)
🔸 Isak Hadjar - 28.09.2004
🔸 Gabriel Bortoleto - 14.10.2004
🔸 Oliver Berman - 08.05.2005
🔸 Andrea Kimi Antonelli - 25.08.2006

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Lorenzo Bandini would have turned 89 today.

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23/12/2009: The day Michael Schumacher announced his return to F1 with Mercedes

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An interesting note from colleagues from GPFans: the engineers at Racing Bulls have far fewer restrictions on the size of drivers than their colleagues at Haas. Well, people there are still used to Hulkenberg.

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Gayton McKenzie, South African Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, has outlined what will happen in the near future to ensure that the Grand Prix can be held in South Africa again.

"At the end of February, the Bid Committee should tell us the name of the promoter. Then we will agree it with the leadership of our country. After that, if everything is OK, we will apply to host a Formula 1 round. And if we are lucky, we will be able to host it already in 2026. But in general, we are aiming for 2027."

"What is very important for us is to make tickets affordable for ordinary people. But VIP tickets and VIP services will be very, very, very expensive. We are going to tax them to subsidize the entrance tickets for ordinary spectators."

"A lot of people talk about Rwanda. Why, when it comes to Africa, do they treat us as if we can only get one Grand Prix? There are seven in Europe."

"We are here (at the press conference) for two reasons. And the first is to pay tribute to Lewis Hamilton and thank him. For many years, he single-handedly supported racing in South Africa. Next year I will wear Ferrari [red]. I will give up Mercedes. I am following Lewis Hamilton. No one has ever fought harder for us to bring Formula 1 to African soil. Thank you Lewis Hamilton!"

"Lewis Hamilton, you have said that your dream is to race in South Africa again. I am here to tell you: we will not rest until your dream comes true and you are back racing in the South African Grand Prix."

The second reason was a statement by Kyalami Circuit owner Toby Venter. He said that the circuit is 90% ready to receive the Grade 1 status required to host a Grand Prix. According to him, 10% of the required upgrades will be carried out during 2025, and by 2026 the circuit will be certified.

"For those who say we won't be ready and we won't have the money for it, you'll be surprised to know that construction will start right after the holidays. Formula 1 is coming to South Africa: now's the time to be happy for us!"

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This time, Motorsport.com has already calculated the losses that teams suffered due to the fault of their drivers. I hope that in this version the amounts are closer to reality than those of other "counters".

As far as I understand, they also pinned the accident in Monaco on Perez. Perhaps, yes, he was too optimistic.

Well, Gasly still came out dry at the end of this year.

Some amounts are indicated in dollars, and some in pounds. Don't pay attention, it's a typo. Everything is in dollars.

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Formula 1 drivers and managers chose the top 10 for the 2024 season by secret ballot

🏆 Drivers' choice
Verstappen
Norris
Leclerc
Russell
Piastri
Sainz
Gasly
Hulkenberg
Alonso
Hamilton

🏆 Managers' choice
Verstappen
Norris
Leclerc
Piastri
Sainz
Russell
Hamilton
Hulkenberg
Alonso
Gasly

Interesting: for the first time, 100% of managers chose Max as their number one.

The drivers themselves rate Pierre Gasly and George Russell higher, putting Lewis very low, but the managers put Piastri and Hamilton higher, and are not thrilled with Pierre.

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Only 12 times in the history of Formula 1, a driver became champion at the wheel of a car not belonging to the first team of the championship.

Symbolically, besides Max, only Nelson Piquet (Kelly's father) was able to do this twice in his career.

At the same time, at the wheel of the third team of Formula 1 and below, the title was won only three times in history.

1982 - Keke Rosberg
1983 - Nelson Piquet
2024 - Max Verstappen

In 1982, Keke won at the wheel of Williams, who became fourth in the Cup.

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How pilots rated their COLLEAGUES this year + a couple more years until 2018

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Circa 2007. Carlos Sainz Jr. is introduced to open wheels. Next to Carlos are Sainz Sr. and instructor Maria de Villota.

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And this is the Spanish racer Emilio de Villota, Maria's father.

I don't think many people know or remember him in the context of his performances in the World Championship. And it's no wonder. Of his 15 attempts to start the race, two were successful in 1977 - in Spain (finished 13th) and in Austria (finished 17th). More precisely, there was another retirement at the Spanish Grand Prix in 1980. But there was a circus with horses and this stage disappeared from the championship standings.

Another interesting thing in his career was the title in the British Formula 1 Championship, which was Aurora AFX F1, all in the same 1980, endurance races and three Le Mans. He had his own racing team and racing school.

There were many interesting things. But we are still not talking about him

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Today would have been 68 years old for Michele Alboreto, Formula 1 vice-champion and winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.