🎉 Four things to enjoy in the 2023 F1 season

Every F1 season feels like 20+ very special episodes of your favourite TV show.

Some of those instalments are the real tentpole twists that get people talking the next day and have millions reaching for their phones to get their reaction out, sharing the experience with a community that’s growing all the time.

The 2023 season has 23 races, six sprints, 48 F2 and F3 sprint and feature events, millions of hours of video content, audio podcasts, F1 blogs, social media creators, the thoughts of countless Tweeters, posters, TikTokers etc. The list is near-endless. So first of all, thank you for your continued support of this - my silly little F1 blog.

When I started writing this particular entry, it was initially going to focus on gatekeeping. The old-school F1 fans threatened by change, their niche interest suddenly endangered by wave after wave of new fans. 

The only word I can say to any new F1 fan is “welcome” - if Formula 1 is truly to become a sport for all, well, that should extend to the sport’s fans too (the less said about how samey a lot of the media is, the better).

If you’re someone who unironically uses the phrase “wheel knowledge” to put people down, if you’re an old-school fan that mutters the word “Netflix” to put people down, or a new member of “F1Twt (tm)” that puts down older fans, this is probably not the blog for you.

For everyone else - hello, let’s chat about 2023 and a few of those very special episodes where the previous season have scores to settle! It’d be foolish to put in place any predictions for the season when a wheel hasn’t been turned in anger or any other emotion, but there are plenty of questions to ask - whether it’s the champions at Red Bull or the historic name at the back with Williams looking to a refreshed driver lineup to kickstart their new era, there is plenty to look forward to this year. Let’s begin with something off track.

🎮Will the next F1 Manager game be any good?

Oh how I wanted this to be good. Like, really really cross your fingers and shout levels of hope. I pre-ordered and excitedly loaded this up on purchase, but remained underwhelmed. 

Football Manager gets a bad rep as being a spreadsheet with a nice GUI but the emotions you can get while playing it are unmatched. That game has that “just one more match” quality to it. When playing F1 Manager, I felt the opposite. Everything felt like an obligation. Some dry technical work to look at with a calculator, followed by some prep, and yes, we’re now ready to race… but good luck if you want it to be enjoyable, with some strange decisions going on with tyres and strategy among the AI.

The game looks and sounds incredible and they’ve used the license well, but the level of commitment required to enjoy it is far too heavy. 

Video games are an essential gateway for casual fans to understand a new sport - you only have to look into franchises like Madden, Football Manager or even Mario & Sonic at the Olympics as ways for people to learn and love new formats, and F1 Manager was meant to fill this crucial gap in people’s enjoyment of a sport enjoying the mainstream. Please, let 2023’s edition be purchase-worthy.

🎭 New challengers and new dramas

Welcome to Logan Sargeant, Nyck de Vries and Oscar Piastri. Three drivers with very different stories coming into Formula 1 at the same time - to continue the TV analogy right at the start of this, three new characters in an ensemble drama. Nyck de Vries had a role as an extra last season before his elevation to the main cast, leaving the Mercedes family to go over to Red Bull and partner Yuki Tsunoda. 

Piastri’s introduction was very different - dominated F3, crushed F2 and then… was a bit stuck before the high drama of announcements. A cliffhanger ending resolved by Daniel Ricciardo leaving McLaren, vacating the seat that Alpine junior Piastri has now filled.

His introduction is the most interesting, joining a top-five team in acrimonious circumstances and a young, hungry driver on the other side of the garage. There will be a lot of eyes on Piastri from day one, and Lando Norris will be the best comparator as to how experience in an F1 car simply can’t be bought.

Well, it can be bought, for a limited time, but eventually teams will want to do better than trundling around at the back. Nicholas Latifi has left Williams, taking his sponsorship deals with him. He has been replaced by Logan Sargeant, or to give him his full name - American driver Logan Sargeant.

The 22-year-old finished fourth in Formula 2 last year, behind Felipe Drugovich (Aston Martin reserve), Theo Pourchaire (Alfa Romeo Reserve) and Liam Lawson (Red Bull-affiliated, gone to Super Formula) but did win a couple of feature races.

There will be an immediate expectation on him, especially from American fans, who have not had a full-time driver from the USA since Scott Speed, but being at Williams brings a different sort of pressure than being at McLaren. He can be afforded patience, and F2 feature wins at Austria (after all the penalties) and the UK in 2022 might make him someone to watch in July especially.

🔻 The lower half

The second half of the teams’ championship was fascinating. I realise this sentence reads like some hipster who only watches a lower-league football team’s reserves but allow me to digress.

Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin (both 55), Haas (37) and Alpha Tauri (35) occupied sixth through to ninth in the constructors’ and all four teams may think they’ve made some sort of jump. Maybe not enough to overcome the 100+ points to McLaren, but potentially enough for a new name to break into the 100-point club.

The fun part is that no-one has any clue as to which one it might be. Aston Martin replaced Sebastian Vettel with Fernando Alonso, and new teammate Lance Stroll got up close and personal with him in Texas 2022.

They’re also building what looks like an immense new factory that acts as a marker for their ambitions to move from mid-table to the battle at the front.

If any of these teams is to make that shift, Aston Martin are probably the best-prepared to do so, but the midfield scrap in Bahrain for the last few points is going to be fascinating, especially with Haas’ new lineup. They had a great race in Bahrain last year, finishing fifth and a repeat of that would feel like a bigger statement than doing so in 2022.

Alpha Tauri have a year’s extra data, a new title sponsor, a new driver who has taken points in F1 before… another ninth-placed (or worse) finish would be a total disaster. 

And as for Alfa Romeo, they have a relaxed team leader, a solid young driver who no longer his rookie plates on and a new floor. Sixth-place was their best F1 finish since 2019 (albeit with two fewer points), and this is the year to build on it.

Midcard madness is upon us, and F1 needs at least one name to separate itself from the pack.

⏱️ Make the most of the sprint

We’ve got six sprint races to look forward to in 2023, taking the short format to new places and bringing another event for F1 fans to look forward to.

With six races, F1 should create a secondary title of Sprint Champion for the driver who gets the most points in the sprint format - really make the designation matter.

The teams and drivers need to make the most of it too - there is too much jeopardy in sending it down the inside in the sprint. Get it wrong on Saturday by crashing out and your Sunday drive becomes a bit pointless. Sprints shouldn’t set the grid for the Grand Prix, with the Sprint being its own reward.

However, there are significant points available for success over 100kms, and F1 have made it clear that it’s here to stay. It can work, but there maybe hasn’t quite yet been that turning point moment where the sprint format has played itself into popularity - Hamilton’s Brazilian masterclass in 2021 was probably the closest.

The sprint actively undid the underdog narrative at the same track in 2022. Kevin Magnussen’s pole at Sao Paulo in 2022 was a brilliant story which was eventually ruined by the sprint, finishing eighth and then getting taken out on the first lap of the race proper. Instead, if I could have one rule change for 2023, it would be that conventional qualifying sets the grid for Sunday and the sprint grid is determined by reversing championship order, forcing overtakes ahead of Sunday.

There’s a lot to look out for in F1 in 2023, and this doesn’t really go beyond scratching the surface. What are you looking forward to as the season approaches?