Christian Horner to Ferrari? – Five things we would like to see in F1 that would never happen

We at PlanetF1.com have little power to change the F1 rulebook but if we were given the keys for a day, what would we change?

Everyone has an opinion about how to make the sport more exciting and while some of these are more plausible than others, we are all in agreement that they are unlikely to happen.

But what’s the harm in speculating? Here are some ideas we have that we would love to see in F1.

Current World Champions on the same team

The obvious (read chaotic) pairing would be Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen but indeed a mix of any of the World Champions on the grid would be a fascinating experiment.

Let’s start with Hamilton and Verstappen. Both are used to being the lead driver in a team and this dynamic would be hugely shaped by who goes to which team. Hamilton moving to Red Bull would have to accept he would be playing second fiddle behind Verstappen and the same would be true if it was the reverse.

But away from team politics, seeing two extraordinarily good drivers in the same car would be a captivating watch. The question of how good a driver is compared to one another is always hard to answer but that would be a lot easier should they be in the same car.

The same could be said of Fernando Alonso. While missing the world titles of Hamilton and now one behind Verstappen, there is a sense the Spaniard is just as good as either of them so to see that would be a great watch.

Of course, World Champions on the same team is not unprecedented (see the pairings of Hamilton/Button, Alonso/Raikkonen and Vettel/Raikkonen in the past 15 years), but it seems a more unlikely prospect these days.

Allow F1 drivers to compete in other series

In previous years, F1 was not the all-encompassing job that it is for a driver these days. Bruce McLaren famously competed in a number of competitions, a motivating factor behind why McLaren choose to do so today, and although some of their decisions to do so were money-related, many drivers from yesteryear could test their chops in a number of different series.

But with 24 races slated for 2024, the reality is this current crop does not get a chance to try something different. Say Charles Leclerc wanted to compete in Le Mans with Ferrari, or Fernando Alonso in the Indy 500, they simply cannot due to the time constraints of the F1 calendar.

It is something that Max Verstappen has hinted at as being a motivating factor behind a possible early exit from F1. Would it not be more beneficial to keep the likes of Verstappen in the sport for longer if they were allowed more freedom to pursue other interests?

The Triple Crown of Motorsport is something only one man has ever achieved (Graham Hill) and the way things are now, no driver will ever match that feat.

Toto Wolff or Christian Horner to Ferrari

The Red Bull and Mercedes boss are the two longest-standing members of the team principal fraternity and no doubt skilled operators in the role, which poses the question – can they solve the unsolvable problem at Ferrari?

Ferrari is the issue that no-one has been able to fully crack since their fall away from their title victories of the noughties and while Fred Vasseur is no fool, it has yet to be seen whether he is on the same level of Wolff and Horner.

Transport either of those two into Ferrari and let us see what happens. Both have proven they can build title-winning teams so if they fail at Ferrari, does that prove that there is an inherent problem at Formula 1’s oldest and most successful team?

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Remove the weather radar

If you will allow us the chance to be a little bit silly, may we offer you the removal of weather radars. While the Bernie Ecclestone sprinkler idea is as infamous as it is foolish, this could be seen as a successor but one that relies on nature more than artificial excitement.

Given the huge amount of data available to teams in 2023, some of the unpredictability of the sport has been lost.

Granted, data does help to make the race more exciting but as a silly experiment, it would be interesting to see how teams would fare without their high-tech and complex weather radars. What if they were forced to rely on the systems that we use instead?

Go back to the Dutch Grand Prix this season and just imagine that start if nobody knew what was coming next from the weather gods.

Rookie race

Being a rookie in F1 is a tough gig. You go from minimal driving to suddenly having to compete and as Logan Sargeant found out, if you don’t hit the ground running, the pressure can be immense.

With Formula 1 testing rules as they are, any chance of drivers getting used to an F1 car before their debut is limited but why not give them a race scenario that will help them better prepare?

We are not asking for a race to be taken out of the calendar but instead, how about an additional one put in on a Saturday one race weekend a year? Allow the teams to build a third car that weekend that is outside of the cost cap and it will give rookies some valuable racing time in an F1 car.

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