The 2024 Formula 1 World Championship that starts tomorrow in Bahrain will be historic. In addition to being the earliest start in the last 32 years (in 1992 it started on March 1 in South Africa), it will be the longest championship in the 75 editions with 24 races. So the champion Max Verstappen will have the opportunity to extend his absolute record of victories in a season (which he set at 19 last year). Because the insatiable and indomitable Dutch driver will once again be, if nothing strange prevents it, the great favorite to take the crown, the fourth in a row, with a Red Bull that continues to be the fastest and most reliable car.
These are the main novelties of the 2024 F-1 World Championship so you don’t miss a single detail.
Verstappen and 19 others
Fernando Alonso already said it after the three days of pre-season tests in Bahrain: “I would say that after seeing Max and the Red Bull car this year, there is less chance for everyone else to win a race this year season I think that 19 drivers in the paddock now think that we will not win the championship”. In other words, the only favorite will once again be Max Verstappen, who expects a new rival after the opposition he had from Lewis Hamilton (2021), the slight one from Charles Leclerc (2022) and the almost non-existent one from his colleague Sergio Pérez (2023). An ambition that is inseparable from the mechanical superiority that the RB20 has shown in tests, thanks to its new qualitative leap from an aerodynamic point of view (with minimalist pontoons), with which it has taken a step forward and moved away even more than the competition. Neither Ferrari nor Mercedes, nor Aston Martin, seem in a position to discuss victories at Red Bull.
The same payroll of 22
There are no new faces in the 2024 championship. Since no new promises of quality in the lower categories are knocking on F-1’s door, the same 22 drivers who finished the 2023 World Championship in Abu Dhabi will start in Bahrain. That is, with the only change compared to the starters at the start of last year, the Australian Daniel Ricciardo at the wheel of the Alpha Tauri instead of the Dutchman Nick de Vries, which only lasted eight races. They repeat the same 11 pairs of drivers, of which the most veteran are those of Ferrari, Leclerc-Sainz (the Madrid driver is in the last year wearing red), and Red Bull, Verstappen-Pérez, both for the fourth season in a row ( from 2021).
Two renamed teams
Who pays rules, and therefore the teams are subject to name changes due to commercial imperative. Two teams are changing their name, and you’ll have to get used to it: Alpha Tauri (as the heir to Toro Rosso has been known for the past three years) is now called Visa Cash App RB F1 Team, or simply RB (from Red Bull) for friends, while what was Alfa Romeo has been renamed as Stake Kick Sauber – and with new colors, green and black – as a step before becoming the team in 2026 official Audi (with the technical structure of Sauber).
24 races in 9 months
Liberty Media, in its eagerness to squeeze the business, has signed commercial deals with 24 promoters to bring Formula 1 to every corner of the earth. So that 2024 will be the longest championship in its 75-year history, right up to Christmas. There will be two more races than in 2023: Emilia-Romagna is back on the calendar, after the floods in Imola that forced the cancellation of last year’s GP, and China, after four years of restrictions due to the pandemic of coronavirus Also worth noting is the change in the date of the Japanese GP, from September to April, that of Spain in Montmeló, from the beginning to the end of June (the weekend of the St. John’s Eve), and the celebration of the first two races on Saturday, that of Bahrain (4:00 p.m.) and that of Saudi Arabia (6:00 p.m.).
Six Saturdays with Sprint
The short races on Saturdays (called Sprint since last year, although they were introduced in 2021) do not go further, so they will only be seen in six grand prix: they repeat at the Red Bull Ring in Austria, in Austin , Interlagos and Qatar, and premieres in Shanghai and Miami. The format (a third of the usual distance) and the distribution of points (to the top 8) are maintained, and their classification will continue to determine the grid for Sunday’s race.
