Triggered by the retirement of Sebastian Vettel, a whirlwind whipped through the paddock as Fernando Alonso's Aston Martin switch kicked off a fight between Alpine and McLaren over Oscar Piastri that was only resolved by F1's Contracts Recognition Board on the Zandvoort weekend.
But just as F1's 2023 on-track action is not quite as exciting as last year, so too has grand prix racing's annual driver market silly season been quite muted this time around. The theme appears very much to be more of the same in F1 2024, with all the major seats appearing to be locked down until the end of next year.
With Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes - pending Lewis Hamilton finally putting pen to paper - McLaren, Aston Martin, Alpine, and Haas all having their line-ups pretty much set in stone, the key interest seems to revolve around seats at the back end of the grid.
Things there remain in a state of flux: Alfa Romeo is yet to decide if it will stick with Zhou Guanyu, while AlphaTauri will be weighing up Liam Lawson more closely now as it ponders how to progress with Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo.
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Logan Sargeant's place at Williams has also emerged as a key target from a number of drivers eager to get themselves on the grid, with speculation having linked both Mick Schumacher and Felipe Drugovich with the squad.
However, there may not be a vacancy there with team principal James Vowles having been clear in public that there will be every reason to continue with the American if he can continue making progress in closing the gap to Alex Albon.
Source: Autosport