F1 drivers discuss if the sport should have a transfer window for drivers where they wait for a certain time to undertake all the deals.
The driver market broke open in F1 2024 after the news of Lewis Hamilton leaving Mercedes to join Ferrari in 2025. That kick-started the driver market early and with Sauber/Audi wanting to sign up quickly, it has further made it somewhat chaotic.
It has led some teams to sign up early and not given much time to them or the drivers to ascertain their chances. There are seats available still and a lot to play for, but it seems like things will be sorted by the summer break in August for most of the F1 grid.
This untimely thing pushed to understand if F1 can have its own transfer window – a designated time for teams and drivers to discuss about their future and formally decide. Some of the other sporting events do have it, especially in football.
While this sort of thing to happen in F1 sounds exciting for the drivers, but it is unlikely to happen considering how the sport works in general. Although talks do happen later in the year, but they still believe a designated window is not something that will work per se.
Lewis Hamilton: “A transfer window? That’s a new one. I haven’t thought about it. I think it’s really exciting in the other sports, like in the NFL, for example. But I think it’s quite exciting now [in F1]. No one knows who’s going where. Obviously, bit by bit, you see it through drips throughout the season. And I think when you do have drivers moving around, it does cause this bit of chaos. And I saw Formula 1 post the other day that there are still many seats that are not yet signed up. It’s quite an exciting time. For us, we’re lucky and we feel very fortunate that we’ve got something locked in. And that really enables you to plan for your future and really channel your energy. But it’s exciting for us to now see where everyone’s moving.”
Pierre Gasly: “I think it’s pretty exciting times at the moment with how things are. And since the start of the year, I think you guys wrote a lot about it and kept everyone very busy. I think it’s fun. We don’t need to copy everything that others are doing. And it’s always been the case in Formula 1. And I think it works well that way.”
Esteban Ocon: “Doesn’t matter if there’s a window. I think, you know, that’s always been historically something in Formula 1, you always had discussions with drivers, teams and usually it tend to happen later for sure. You know, this year’s very busy on the drivers market and yeah, for sure that’s why it started early.”
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