The workers at SB Nation is an amazing combine of people, together with morning individuals — of which I’m sadly turning into one in my later years — and evening owls. With workers members dwelling in varied elements of the USA, in addition to all around the world, likelihood is at the least one among us is up at a sure hour preserving tabs on the sports activities world.
Scrolling again by way of our inner communications from February 1, 2024, the day started innocently sufficient. Or extra precisely, the earlier evening ended innocently sufficient. Some messages after midnight on the East Coast about some West Coast NBA video games, together with the Portland Path Blazers spoiling Dame Lillard’s return with a 119-116 win over the visiting Milwaukee Bucks.
However then at 6:56 Japanese on the morning of February 1, the thunderbolt got here.
Lewis Hamilton was leaving Mercedes on the finish of the 2024 System 1 season for Ferrari.
My colleague James Dator — a superb author who can be an enormous F1 fan — shared in our inner communications system this submit from Sky Sports activities effectively earlier than most had woken up:
It was an announcement that transcended the sports activities world and carried over into the world at massive. Members of the family and buddies who knew nothing about System 1 had been asking for a comparability, and the concept of Tom Brady leaving the New England Patriots for the New York Jets, or the Dallas Cowboys, was shortly supplied as a comparability.
It was additionally an announcement that had been rumored within the earlier days, as among the sport’s extra notable media figures started hinting at rumors of a “huge” announcement. Will Buxton, whose star activate Drive to Survive made him one of many sport’s most well-known figures, had shared on social media the day earlier than that one thing was coming:
Listening to a giant announcement is on the best way earlier than the tip of the week. Whether it is what I feel it’s, it’s completely huge. https://t.co/BfxXh7wPN1
— Will Buxton (@wbuxtonofficial) January 31, 2024
It was Buxton’s submit, and others prefer it, that had me on edge. Pre-writes had been drafted on that final evening of January, and I’d be mendacity if I stated I bought evening of sleep. I tossed and turned all through the evening, continuously waking as much as examine my cellphone because the rumors had been slowly confirmed earlier than dragging myself away from bed earlier than the remainder of the household woke as much as begin writing for actual.
Over the morning at SB Nation, we shifted into all-hands mode. Sure, Tremendous Bowl LVIII was proper across the nook and there have been tales to be written in regards to the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers, however this wanted all our consideration. We wrote in regards to the announcement itself, we dove into potential replacements for Hamilton at Mercedes — fortunately I introduced that article to a detailed with the suggestion of younger Andrea Kimi Antonelli — puzzled why Hamilton would make such a transfer, dove into Carlos Sainz Jr.’s pledge to give his finest for Ferrari in his closing 12 months with the Scuderia, and drew parallels between Hamilton and Michael Schumacher.
That’s how large this announcement was: It drew our consideration away from the Tremendous Bowl.
Finally, the 2024 season started. Sainz did give his best possible for Ferrari in his closing season in crimson, selecting up a pair of wins for Ferrari and serving to the workforce to a second-place end within the Constructors’ Championship. As for Hamilton, he returned to the highest step of a podium for the primary time in an emotional victory at Silverstone, his closing British Grand Prix with Mercedes. He was additionally promoted to a win at Spa when teammate George Russell was disqualified after failing post-race inspections following taking the checkered flag on the Belgian Grand Prix.
However all of these moments paled compared to how February 1, 2024, started within the System 1 world.
Now, what was contemplated on that February morning is turning into actuality. Ferrari’s rollout of Hamilton as their latest F1 driver continues, from pictures of the dwelling legend’s first go to to their Maranello manufacturing facility, to the primary glimpses of him in a Ferrari race swimsuit, to the primary clips of him behind the wheel of the SF-23. As for Sainz, who introduced a transfer of his personal final summer time when he inked a deal to drive for Williams in 2025 and past, his personal rollout continues with photographs and movies of his first visits to the workforce’s Grove manufacturing facility.
However for one morning in February, all the sports activities world paused, as one of many biggest drivers in F1 historical past commanded the world’s consideration.
And the game might by no means be the identical.