2024, Formula 1, World, Championship
The 2024 FIA Formula One World Championship promises to be a thrilling spectacle for motorsport enthusiasts worldwide. As the 75th edition of this prestigious racing series, it brings together the finest drivers and cutting-edge machinery in a quest for glory. Buckle up for a season of speed, strategy, and heart-pounding action!
New Season
Calendar expansion and changes
The Chinese Grand Prix is scheduled to return to the calendar for the first time since 2019 after being cancelled for four years in a row due to difficulties presented by the COVID-19 pandemic in the country. The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, which was cancelled in 2023 due to flooding in the area, is also scheduled to return to the calendar. The Russian Grand Prix was under contract to feature on the 2024 calendar. However, the contract was terminated in 2022 in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Max Verstappen - The Dutchman is the reigning champion and the men to beat by the competition. His main challengers this season could be Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton, or his teammate, Sergio Pérez.
Anniversary - The 75th anniversary edition of the F1 World Championship marks a historic milestone with special events, honoring the sport's legacy and the achievements of legendary drivers throughout its history.
Longest season - The 2024 Formula One World Championship stands as the longest in history, spanning 24 race weekends starting from the Bahrain Grand Prix on March 2 to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on December 8.
Alfa Romeo - ended their partnership with Sauber and left F1 in 2023 as the Swiss team prepares to become the Audi works team in 2026. As the result, the team was rebranded as Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber.
Alpha Tauri - rebranded as RB and relocated the aerodynamics operations of the team to the UK amidst a management restructure, strengthening their connection to Red Bull and its junior program.
No driver changes - All driver and team combinations that competed in the final round of the previous season remained unchanged for the start of this season for the first time in Formula One World Championship history.
Regulation Changes
Changes in the regulations
Although many of the sport's regulations are fixed until the start of the 2026 season, several regulation changes have been implemented for the 2024 Formula 1 World Championship, to enhance the sport. Like this, 2024 is even more stable compared to 2023 when it comes to changes to the regulations – and that usually provides an opportunity for the field to close up – but there are still a few rule tweaks of note for us to guide you through...
Technical regulations
In response to extreme weather conditions resulting in cockpit overheating during the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix, teams are now allowed to install a scoop to the car that is intended to cool down the driver and cockpit area. Wheel covers aiming to reduce spray in wet weather conditions will be further tested during the season. Teams will not be allowed to start wind tunnel or computational fluid dynamics work for the 2026 season, which will see major technical regulations rule changes, until 1 January 2025. However, teams may still do other preliminary research and development work not covered by these restrictions.
Tyres
The "alternative tyre allocation" tested at the 2023 Hungarian and Italian Grands Prix, providing drivers with 11 sets of tyres, was discontinued. Therefore, teams reverted to offering 13 sets of tyres available per driver for each race weekend. The C0 tyre, which was the hardest compound in Pirelli's dry tyre range, introduced but unused in 2023, was removed. It was previously labeled C1 but it was renamed in 2023 due to a new C1 compound slotting between the old C1 and current C2 in hardness. The proposed trial for banning tyre blankets for this season and implementing a full ban in 2025 was dropped for the moment.
Appeal process
Teams can try and revisit decisions that have already been ruled upon, as long as they can provide a “significant and relevant new element discovered which was unavailable to the parties seeking the review at the time of the decision concerned.” The appeals process underwent changes for the 2024 season. The deadline for submitting a request for a review of a decision was shortened from 14 days to four days post-event. Also, the FIA will implement a fee for the process. These adjustments aim to streamline the process, ensuring timely resolutions while discouraging unnecessary challenges.
Sprint weekends
The structure of the sprint weekends was changed for this season, with the goal of rationalising sprint events and separating them from the rest of the GP weekend. The weekend now begins with a single practice session, followed by the sprint qualifying session, which sets the starting grid order for the sprint race. The sprint will then be the first session to take place on Saturday, followed by qualifying for the main race. The Grand Prix itself remains on Sunday. The FIA sporting regulations for the championship now refer to the qualifying for the sprint as "sprint qualifying", as opposed to "sprint shootout".
DRS usage
One additional change, the one regarding DRS usage in Grands Prix was agreed to happen upon by the F1 Commission on Monday, February 5. Accordingly, starting this season, DRS activation for the race will be advanced to one lap, rather than the previous two laps following the race start, a race re-start after a Safety Car period, or after a Red Flag period. This adjustment, which allows DRS usage after the first lap, was already in effect during the sprint races of the last season. This modification aims to enhance the strategic aspect of this season's races while also maintaining safety protocols.
Power unit rules
Last year, teams were allowed to use four of each of the internal combustion engine (ICE), motor generator unit – heat (MGU-H), motor generator unit – kinetic (MGU-K), and turbocharger (TC) before they would pick up a grid penalty. That was due to the length of the season, with teams allowed to develop their power units for reliability purposes. Those increased limits were only in place for 2023, however, with this year originally seeing a return to three each of the ICE, MGU-H, MGU-K and TC. However, a proposal to increase the power unit allocation to four per driver for the 2024 and 2025 seasons was agreed.
Maximum lap time
Prior to Thursday's two practice sessions at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, updated rules were introduced to discourage drivers from driving too slowly on in-laps and reconnaissance laps during the qualifying session. Drivers were initially required to not exceed a maximum time taken to drive through each marshalling sector. This was a change from 2023, when the FIA introduced a maximum time across an entire lap. However, prior to Friday's third practice session and qualifying, the rules were reverted to the 2023 full-lap method, though the rule now applies on both in-laps and out-laps.
DRS usage
One additional change, the one regarding DRS usage in Grands Prix was agreed to happen upon by the F1 Commission on Monday, February 5. Accordingly, starting this season, DRS activation for the race will be advanced to one lap, rather than the previous two laps following the race start, a race re-start after a Safety Car period, or after a Red Flag period. This adjustment, which allows DRS usage after the first lap, was already in effect during the sprint races of the last season. This modification aims to enhance the strategic aspect of this season's races while also maintaining safety protocols.
Penalties
The standard sanction for a driver overtaking another driver off the track and gaining a lasting advantage has been upgraded from a five-second time penalty to a ten-second time penalty, although five-second penalties could still be awarded. The change was made as the five-second penalty was considered insufficient, with drivers regularly gaining more than five seconds through illegally overtaking slower cars off track. Also, in the past, the maximum fine that the stewards could impose under the International Sporting Code was €250,000, but that has been quadrupled this year to now sit at €1million.
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