TRANSFER WINDOW FLIES OPEN

Time to analyse Formula 1's team management merry-go-round

- Damien Smith

Amid the flurries of pre-Christmas snow, a blizzard blew through Formula 1 as four of the 10 teams announced changes at the top. Ferrari, McLaren and Alfa Romeo (which will become Audi in 2026) head into the new year with fresh team principals while, as I write, exactly who will lead the ranks at an increasingly sorry-looking Williams is shrouded in a blanket of midwinter fog.

Parallels to a football mentality on managers are easy to draw. It wasn't like this when F1 teams were owned and run by men of steel such as Colin Chapman and Sir Frank Williams. Now those at the helms of increasingly corporate entities tend to be mere employees, and in a results-driven business, it's all too easy for them to cop the flak and pay the price when performances fall short.

Driver transfers are only half the story now - just as player transfers are in the beautiful game. Although for one of them, the recent shuffling of the pieces might carry particular resonance. Lando Norris could be described as F1's Jude Bellingham. Both are phenomenal young talents with the world at their feet. But while Bellingham will face a wide choice of clubs vying for his services after shining at the World Cup, Norris is tied until 2025 to McLaren, a team that has fallen way short of providing him the winning car that he deserves. Will he negotiate a transfer? If so, when? And who will come in for him?

THE BIGGEST JOB

As expected, Frédéric Vasseur has switched from Alfa Romeo to don the Ferrari blazer after Mattia Binotto's 'resignation'. The Frenchman is well-regarded for his years of success on the nursery slopes, running the likes of Lewis Hamilton in GP2 (now Formula 2) at ART. His stock rose during a brief spell at Renault and then at Sauber (competing since 2019 as Alfa Romeo), and now he has the biggest management job in racing.