‘Pivotal moment’: Drivers react as F1 swallowed by scandal one week into record-breaking season

They say all publicity is good publicity, but Formula 1 has spent the last few weeks pushing that maxim to its limits.

In the opening weeks of the 2024 season — and even dating back to the final weeks of 2023 — the sport has lurched from scandal to scandal, with events off track heavily overshadowing on-track action.

Already this year we’ve had a serious investigation into the behaviour of the sport’s highest profile team boss by a King’s Counsel.

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We’ve then had claimed evidence from that investigation leaked anonymously and subsequent public calls for heads to roll.

The governing body is embroiled in a deepening scandal engulfing its president, with the FIA having only barely recovered from its bizarre two-day investigation into the Wolff family late last year.

Combined it’s been enough to wipe Formula 1’s controversial veto of Andretti bid to join the grid clean out of the news cycle.

People barely even remember that Lewis Hamilton announced he’ll be moving to Ferrari just a few weeks ago.

Every morning the F1 public relations department must be waking up pre-emptively clenched for yet more ‘good publicity’.

“As someone who loves the sport it’s definitely disappointing to see what’s going on right now,” Lewis Hamilton said, per ESPN, of F1’s seemingly perpetual state of scandal. “It definitely doesn’t look good to the outside world, from the outside looking in.

“I think it’s a really, really important time for the sport to show and stick to its values, to hold ourselves accountable for our actions.

“It’s a really, really pivotal moment for the sport in terms of what we project to the world and how it’s handled. It’s not been handled very well up until this point.

“I hope it’s not a year that it continues to go on with this.

“This is not the part of the sport that I love.”

Another maxim: sunlight is the best disinfectant. While Formula 1 has always thrived on intrigue and innuendo, you can have too much of a good thing, and with scandal engulfing some of the sport’s highest profile figures, only transparency and open accountability can get the 2024 season back on track.

CHRISTIAN HORNER’S PRIVATE INVESTIGATION

The season started in Bahrain already marinated in controversy after news broke that Christian Horner was under investigation by Red Bull in Austria over allegations of inappropriate behaviour made by a female member of staff.

On the eve of last week’s Bahrain Grand Prix Red Bull confirmed that the “grievance has been dismissed”, clearing the way for Horner to continue in his role.

It proved an unsatisfying outcome for many in the sport, however, with demands for greater transparency over the process of the investigation, if not the full findings.

Both Mercedes boss Toto Wolff and McLaren CEO Zak Brown have called for the FIA and F1 to undertake its own inquiries, though neither body so far appears moved by the request.

Hamilton said the entire saga proved the sport has more work to do on improving culture.

“I think transparency is really key and I’m really, really hoping to see some progress moving forwards,” he said, per ESPN.

“It highlights some of the issues we also have in the sport. When we are talking about diversity and inclusion, that includes gender, for example, and making people feel comfortable in this environment is key, and that’s clearly not the case.”

Red Bull might have closed the book on this investigation, but there’s still some way to go before Horner can put it behind him.

JOS VERSTAPPEN UPS THE ANTE

Despite Horner’s exoneration, the issue metastasised spectacularly with the leaking of unverified WhatsApp messages claimed to be between Horner and the complainant in a savage attempt at character assassination.

“It’s damaging the sport,” FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem told the Financial Times. “This is damaging on a human level.”

Jos Verstappen, Max’s father, then attempted to grenade the entire situation by declaring Horner a divisive influence on the team and that he had to go.

It turned what had been an internal workplace issue into a public matter of politics in a fight for the soul of Red Bull Racing.

Star driver Max Verstappen is now at the heart of it.

Verstappen artfully sidestepped all questions relating to his position on the feud between his father and his boss, hinting only that “it would be weird to be on a different side” to his father, who he said was “not a liar, that’s for sure”.

Hamilton, who had his own complications with his manager father in his early years of F1 — they subsequently fell out but have since reconciled — said it was a reflection of the complex nature of the parent-child relationship in sport.

“I think it is a very thin line to walk,” Hamilton said. “I think it’s also dependent on your relationship with your parent.

“I think in our world, as drivers, it’s very, very easy to be misled by people whispering in your ear and perhaps not guiding you always the right way.

“I’m not saying it’s the case there, because they’re doing great.

“I’ve experienced it. When you sometimes don’t have the right guidance around you, it leads to you either making the wrong decisions or not being able to perhaps be the best at what you do.

“It is very difficult, because you want your parent to be your parent and have a good relationship. But when business is involved it makes it really difficult.”

At least this particular blow-up has led to some genuine racing news, with speculation the Verstappen camp could be angling for Hamilton’s vacated Mercedes seat next year.

“I think any team wants to have the best driver line-up possible, and right now Max is the best driver on the grid,” George Russell said. “If any team had a chance to sign Max, they would 100 per cent be taking it.

“Whoever were to line up alongside me next year or the years to come, I welcome anybody, welcome the challenge. You always want to go against the best.

“I think the question is more on the other side, on his side and Red Bull’s side. Obviously there’s so much going on there.

“We don’t know what truly is going on behind closed doors, and ultimately it’s none of our business right now.”

FIA UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT

Away from team land, the sport’s governing body has been having a mare.

Its problems started late last season, with a hastily announced inquiry into allegations that Toto and Susie Wolff, employed by Mercedes and F1 respectively, were improperly sharing information.

The investigation, based on one unsubstantiated report, lasted just two days after all nine of Mercedes’s rivals backed the Wolff family, leading to an embarrassing FIA backdown.

Now it’s the FIA’s turn to be hit by damaging stories.

The BBC has reported the governing body’s compliance committee is investigating allegations made against president Mohammed Ben Sulayem.

The first claim is of interference in last year’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, when he is alleged to have pressed for a penalty levied against Fernando Alonso to be overturned. The penalty was rescinded after a successful Aston Martin appeal.

“We were surprised a year ago when the result got overturned, as the legal team at Mercedes thought they did a great job of presenting our case and initially winning the case and then losing it thereafter,” reflected Russell, director of the Grand Prix Drivers Association, this weekend.

“We just want to see transparency and have the opportunity to race on a fair playing field.”

The second claim is that he allegedly urged inspectors to find a way to refuse certification of the Las Vegas Strip Circuit on the eve of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, which would have thrown the sport’s highest profile event of the season into chaos by risking having it called off.

“I think we want to see all of the facts and just have total transparency, really,” Russell added. “We’re all racing here. We want a fair and level playing field for us to showcase what we can do. I can’t really comment further.”

Journalist Joe Saward has reported that there are further questions being raised about expenses relating to Ben Sulayem’s travel allowances.

The FIA has released only a short statement into the matter.

“The FIA confirms that the compliance officer has received a report detailing potential allegations involving certain members of its governing bodies,” the statement read. “The compliance department is assessing these concerns, as is common practice in these matters, to ensure that due process is meticulously followed.”

These reports follow a story in the Dutch Telegraaf that Ben Sulayem had taken the unusual step of asking Verstappen during the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend to express his full support for team boss Horner after a series of noncommittal answers over the unfolding scandal.

The BBC reports that Verstappen told Ben Sulayem to launch his own investigation into Horner’s behaviour in reply.

The context to all of this is the ongoing tension between the FIA and Formula 1 over the division of responsibility managing the sport and the distribution of funds.

With negotiations ramping up over the next Concorde agreement — the document that sets out the ground rules for the sport — friction is likely to become only stronger.

THINGS MIGHT GET WORSE BEFORE THEY GET BETTER

Ordinarily F1 can rely on the on-track action providing the antidote to off-track drama — when the flag drops, the bullshit stops, to use another maxim.

But with the Bahrain Grand Prix dominated by Max Verstappen, the sprawling 24-race season now looms only as a series of opportunities for the sport’s biggest egos to get together and continue to lay landmines for each other — or themselves — and cause more headline grabbing ‘good publicity’.

Fernando Alonso was pessimistic this weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix would do much to quieten Formula 1’s off-track problems.

“There is too much talk off-track because on-track activities are not very exciting at the moment,” he said, per ESPN.

“There is one car winning the last 72 grand prix [50 of the last 67, or 75 per cent] more or less, dominating three years.

“When this happens in a sport there is always a lot of activity off-track.”