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Formula One’s 75th season kicks off this weekend in Bahrain, a location which couldn’t have been further from the minds of the sport’s calendar organizers in 1994.
Time travelers tuning into the 2024 from 30 years ago would likely feel a little confused by the packed, globe-trotting calendar, which has swelled 16 (with none in the US or the Middle East) to a record-busting 24.
But the more things change, the more they stay the same – television rights still sell for staggering sums (and drivers command them), cars designed by Adrian Newey enjoy untold successes – and controversy remains rife on and off the track.
Ownership groups – Bernie Ecclestone versus the Liberty Media era
To say the sport has grown over the last 30 years is a billion-dollar understatement. If predictions are to come off, the annual revenue of Formula One is set to double the figure it brought in before Liberty Media’s acquisition of the Formula One Group – just eight years ago in 2016.
After a record-breaking 2023, Formula One is set to deliver a £2.5billion revenue which would mean a 27 per cent year-on-year increase – and while growth isn’t likely to be as bullish in 2024, Formula One Group are projected to bring in £2.8bn ($3.5bn) at the end of the season’s financial year.
In 1994, the group was bought to heel by one man – legendary chief executive Bernie Ecclestone, whose appointment in 1978 heralded a landmark fight with FIA (Federation Indeternationale de l’Automobile) for control of the sports commercial rights.
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Winning them in 1981 ushered in a new era of commercialisation for Formula One, and by the early 1990s, the grid spend on budgets and sponsorships had surpassed £79million ($100m). One key change over the last 30 years? Drivers waved goodbye to their primary money-spinning sponsor, big tobacco, in 2005.
A new champion in Schumacher and Verstappen’s dominance at Red Bull
At the start of the season, the big move on everyone’s mind was Aytron Senna’s switch to double-constructors-champions Williams, replacing his bitter rival Alain Prost in a bid to win his third world title. It seems fitting, then, that 30 years later, the driver that has called Senna his idol on more than one occasion – Lewis Hamilton – will have the biggest buzz after announcing his shock 2025 move to Ferrari.
The loss of Prost somewhat dimmed the star-wattage at the start of the season, the Frenchman’s spiky battle with the Brazilian icon a fan favourite as they traded championships between 1988 and 1991. But this seemed to have preordained the season for Senna, going into the season with a constructor that had started on pole for 30 of the last 32 races.
What Williams and Senna hadn’t accounted for was the fast start from future record-breaking world champion Michael Schumacher, whose upstart Benetton left his rivals in the dust in Brazil and then Japan in the season’s openers. Tragically, Senna was robbed of the opportunity to contest the remainder of 1994 after his shocking death at the year’s third race, the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola.
