All eyes on Bahrain as F1 arrives with more plotlines than a soap opera | Giles Richards

As Formula One heads into the opening weekend of the new season there will doubtless be something of a sigh of relief in welcoming the relatively straightforward business of cars racing after one of the most turbulent and dramatic close seasons F1 has experienced in decades. Finally, some spectacle over speculation.

When the lights go out in Bahrain on Saturday, the real form for 2024 will be on display as the testing phoney war comes to a close. Yet, even then, the aftershocks of the events of the last month will continue to resound across the longest season in F1’s history at 24 races and with an 8 December finish.

The drama began at the end of January when F1 turned down the Andretti team’s bid to join the grid, a decision in which F1 and the teams were in agreement while many fans and observers felt it was unnecessary protectionism.

Rumbles of disgruntlement at Andretti’s rejection were swiftly followed by a series of thunderclaps that will echo long into 2024.

A day later Lewis Hamilton shocked the sport and his Mercedes team by announcing he would be joining Ferrari in 2025. He cited the desire for a new challenge and the boyhood dream of joining the Scuderia in what was the most significant driver move of the modern era.

The anticipation for Hamilton’s debut in red is already off the scale, yet he must see out a final year with Mercedes first and this is uncharted territory. The team with whom he has won six of his seven drivers’ championship titles know he is leaving and that Hamilton is already looking to the future.

Both sides assert that they will be giving their all, their focus on the now but their dynamic has fundamentally changed and how that plays out across the year is set to be fascinating. Not least when, as team principal Toto Wolff has conceded, at some point Hamilton will have to be excluded from the flow of information about next year’s car, while they also look to bring his teammate, George Russell, up to the plate as de facto team leader, another dynamic fraught with potential friction.

Moreover Hamilton’s decision has left Mercedes with a seat open for 2025and no clear cut, easy options. Expect one narrative for the season to include rumour and conjecture as to who might step into his shoes. Wolff has already stated that potentially it is a time to be bold, with Russell ready to lead the team.

Perhaps then their young charger, the Mercedes junior driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli is on the cards, at just 17 years old. The Italian is an exceptional talent and will race in F2 this year – also beginning in Bahrain this weekend – but what a gamble it would be.

Other contenders will doubtless keep the pot boiling too. Fernando Alonso, out of contract with Aston Martin at the end of this season, has pointedly noted he believes he is in “a good position to negotiate”, the Spaniard making eyes in the opening gambit of an elaborate dance with Mercedes. Expect interest to also range across Alex Albon, Carlos Sainz and Esteban Ocon.

Yet even as Hamilton’s move was still being analysed it too was eclipsed, when the Red Bull team principal Christian Horner was revealed to be under investigation by the team’s parent company after complaints from a female employee of alleged inappropriate behaviour.

Horner has denied the allegations but the investigation has not yet concluded as the new season looms and Horner’s position remains in the balance as his team set out to defend their title.

This turmoil at the top is the last thing any team needs in preparation for competition and there remains no timeline as to when it may be resolved. The private, external inquiry conducted by an unnamed English barrister has released no information and nor have Red Bull, although Horner has already taken part in an extensive interview with the investigation and is not suspended during its course.

Even if he is exonerated it is believed the handling of the case has exposed fault lines in the relationship between Horner and the parent company, Red Bull GmbH, or elements of it, as well as reports of a deterioration of his relationship with his world champion driver Max Verstappen and his father Jos, which Horner has denied.

While it remains ongoing it is a pall hanging over Red Bull which is a galling reality for many in the team because once again they look to be formidably strong going into the new season.

Verstappen, who does not have the greatest of poker faces to say the least, was positively beaming after testing last week. The radical evolution of last year’s Red Bull which won 21 of the 22 races proved to once more be formidable from the off. Ignoring the deceptive nature of simple fastest laps, on race pace their car might have had as much as three-tenths of a second on the rest of the field.

As McLaren’s team principal, Andrea Stella, put it with elegant and ominous brevity. “One car seems to have found a big step,” he said. “Unfortunately the car that was already the quickest last year.”

Ferrari too have improved and look to be Red Bull’s closest challengers, their drivers Charles Leclerc and Sainz expressing themselves far happier with the car’s handling and stability than they were last year but they will likely have to develop with a ferocious speed to overhaul Red Bull. At Mercedes similarly, the car, of an entirely new design, has been praised as a step forward but notably only offering the solid platform, consistency and performance, especially through the corners, from which they can develop.

More accurate assessments must wait until Saturday evening but for the moment, for all the sound and fury of a striking close season and its ongoing impact, the sporting form feels all too familiar.