Stuart Codling Editor
The more things change, the more things stay the same. Seldom has the aphorism coined by Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr (or, for that matter, Jon Bon Jovi, if you’re feeling lowbrow) been more true in the Formula 1 world. Let’s start with the cover price of this issue of GP Racing, £7.99. We hope the product’s additional girth – an extra 24 pages of season-preview wholesomeness – offsets any fury you may have experienced when you clocked the price label. Imagine how much Ferrari will have to whack on the sticker of an F8 to claw back the additional financial load of Lewis Hamilton’s annual stipend… Don’t worry, we’ll be back to the regular price and page count next month. Phew!
I write this in the immediate aftermath of the team launches, a period fraught with sensations of mild disappointment these days since the majority of ‘reveals’ consist of the previous year’s car with a new paint job. Much of the intrigue has surrounded the new game of how little actual paint a team can get away with, so challenging is it to engineer a car under the weight limit. The need to maintain some secrecy is understandable but, as we explore on page 46, convergence is biting rather quickly in this budget-capped era since pragmatism naturally trumps adventure. There are fewer big surprises on the tech front.
Little movement in terms of the cast list, too, at least for this season. Every driver remains where they were at the end of 2023; what’s remarkable is that this is the first time these circumstances have arisen since the world championship began in 1950. We delve into the reasons for this on p34.
Slip into Toto Wo
