Formula One begins its longest season ever Saturday, with the Bahrain Grand Prix kicking off a 24-race schedule that will include the circuit’s return to China for the first time since the pandemic.

All of that should set up yet another record year for F1, after annual revenue surpassed $3 billion for the first time in 2023. That was thanks in part to the wildly successful debut of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, which will take another spin around the Strip in November. But since the ’23 campaign ended, it’s been an offseason filled with plenty of twists and turns, all leading up to this weekend’s return.

From the Executive Suite

After dominating both the drivers’ and constructors’ championships last year, Red Bull became the talk of the offseason for a different reason. Allegations of inappropriate behavior levied against team principal Christian Horner by a female Red Bull employee brought his future with the organization into question. This week, Red Bull, without revealing any significant details, announced an independent investigation cleared Horner of any wrongdoing. But the drama continued, with Horner having to speak out Thursday after files purportedly related to his misconduct investigation were emailed to hundreds of F1, FIA, and team officials. On Friday, Horner met with F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali and FIA boss president Mohammed Ben Sulayem separately to discuss the ongoing controversy surrounding him, per ESPN.

Meanwhile, Toto Wolff signed a three-year extension to remain team principal at Mercedes. His salary is not public, but Wolff owns 33% of the F1 team, which Forbes most recently valued at $3.8 billion. At Haas, founding team principal Guenther Steiner’s contract was not renewed, but there’s good news for any Drive to Survive fans who have enjoyed his energetic personality on the grid and Netflix series alike: German F1 broadcaster RTL has tapped Steiner as a commentator this season.

Behind the Wheel

No drivers have changed teams for the 2024 season, but there is an impending shift creating tension on the F1 grid. Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton has already agreed to leave Mercedes after this season to join Ferrari in ’25, creating lame-duck years for himself and the driver he’ll replace, Carlos Sainz. Hamilton’s ’23 salary was $55 million, per Forbes, and some reports out of Europe estimate his multiyear Ferrari deal to be worth more than $400 million, between salary and other benefits.

Media Madness

The sixth season of Drive to Survive is out, and like other editions of the series, Netflix is being criticized for some overdramatization of some events. Now three-time defending champion Max Verstappen famously refused to participate in the show’s fourth season, which chronicled his first title in 2021, due to his portrayal in previous seasons.

While ESPN enters the second season of its three-year U.S. media-rights deal believed to be worth $85 million annually, F1 just completed a 10-year pact with beIN Sports for broadcast rights in the Middle East, North Africa, and Turkey that multiple reports are saying is worth $500 million in total.

Call It What You Want

With sponsor dollars key for F1 team operations, official squad names change all the time as new financial backers arrive—and this year is no different. Welcome to the grid, Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber and Visa Cash App RB Formula One Team. Rolls off the tongue nicely, huh? 

“I know people are going to shorten it and I’ve already heard RB and whatever,” said Daniel Ricciardo, who drives for the latter. “I will say ‘Do as you wish,’ but you’ll hear me say ‘Visa Cash App RB.’” Spoken like a true … spokesperson.

The Mid-Atlantic Sports Network is trying to strike a new carriage agreement with Comcast, but the issue transcends the typical contract battles between sports television networks and cable distributors, and it could greatly impact the presence and economic state of two MLB clubs. 

The Orioles-controlled regional sports network’s contract with the largest cable carrier in the Baltimore-Washington region expired at the end of February, and a short-term extension has been reached that will give them until March 7 to strike a new deal. But those discussions are occurring against a backdrop of significant change on both sides of the table.

From Comcast’s perspective, the talks arrive amid continued cord-cutting across the entire pay-TV industry and rising costs for RSNs of all types. Because of that, the carrier has already been shifting such networks to higher-cost premium tiers that target the channels to more avid fans willing to pay for them. Comcast recently made such a move in Pittsburgh and Seattle. If Comcast were to do the same in Baltimore and Washington, fans there would be faced with a choice of paying for a more expensive Xfinity package or switching to another cable or satellite TV provider. Other distributors, too, are paying close attention to how Comcast handles these RSNs. 

Without any type of new deal between MASN and Comcast or another extension of the negotiating window, a large swath of the Baltimore and Washington markets will be blacked out from watching the Orioles and Nationals. There is also no direct-to-consumer streaming option, as MASN has not developed an in-market offering similar to what is available in several other MLB markets, and it only livestreams content to authenticated cable subscribers.

For the Orioles, meanwhile, the situation with MASN’s largest distributor arrives just as the club is in the midst of being sold to private equity billionaire David Rubenstein. Even before the completion of that deal, valuing the club at $1.725 billion, the club faces a potentially large shift with one of its key local revenue sources. Comcast’s placing of MASN on a less popular tier, if it happens, would meaningfully cut into the channel’s distribution and income, and no deal at all would obviously be even more damaging to the club financially. 

The Nationals are now off the market after a change of heart by the Lerner family on a potential franchise sale. But the club remains a minority equity partner in MASN, and it also faces a major loss in public exposure and revenue without a new distribution agreement with Comcast.