A return to China, new dash race venues and a number of renamed groups. The 2024 Method 1 season may not function as many sweeping adjustments as many latest years, however there are some notable variations heading into the upcoming season.
Right here’s what’s modified – and what hasn’t – for the seventy fifth Method 1 world championship season.
Drivers
It doesn’t take lengthy to recap the entire driver market strikes for 2024 – as a result of there aren’t any.
For the primary time within the historical past of Method 1, each driver who completed final yr’s last spherical in Abu Dhabi will take the grid for the season opener in Bahrain with the identical group. All 20 drivers, from Max Verstappen to Logan Sargeant, have retained their seats from 2023 to 2024, with out a single driver transfer between them. The truth is, the one distinction between the sphere who will compete in Bahrain in March and the 20 drivers who raced there final yr shall be that Daniel Ricciardo races instead of Nyck de Vries after he changed the rookie driver halfway by means of final season.
With all 20 race drivers the identical, there are a few adjustments to the drivers who will act as reserves over the season. As seen with Ricciardo and Purple Bull reserve Liam Lawson, there’s all the time a chance {that a} reserve driver might be referred to as as much as step in for a group mate within the occasion of a mishap or sickness.
Many groups are retaining their reserve drivers for this season, together with Aston Martin who will as soon as once more have growth driver Felipe Drugovich on standby, or Sauber, who will hold Theo Pourchaire within the storage through the season. Nevertheless, McLaren have modified their reserves for the brand new season.
Out goes 2023 reserve Alex Palou following a really public breakdown in McLaren’s relationship with them. As an alternative, Palou’s place shall be stuffed by fellow IndyCar racer Pato O’Ward and Toyota World Endurance Championship racer and Le Mans 24 Hours winner Ryo Hirakawa. Many different groups have but to formally verify their reserves for the brand new season.
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Groups
The final 12 months have seen the query of whether or not Andretti will get to hitch the grid as an eleventh group within the upcoming years develop into one of many hottest speaking factors within the sport. However whereas Andretti’s formal approval stays in limbo whereas Method 1 considers whether or not to just accept their bid, the 2024 grid shall be made up of the identical ten entities it has since 2016 with the arrival of Haas as the latest group within the pit lane.
Nevertheless, there are two groups who’re going to be competing underneath completely different names than they had been final yr. Purple Bull’s second group, who’ve competed for the final 4 seasons as ‘AlphaTauri’ – named after Purple Bull’s vogue model – have been entered within the official entry checklist for the 2024 season as ‘RB’. Nevertheless, it’s believed that this can be a placeholder title. Late final yr, Purple Bull filed a copyright software for a reputation ‘Racing Bulls’.
Equally, the Alfa Romeo title has left the Method 1 grid for the third time within the sport’s historical past. Run by the Sauber organisation, Alfa Romeo turned the complete naming rights companion in 2019 with Sauber competing underneath the title of the Italian marque for the final 5 seasons.
Forward of their deliberate transition into the Audi manufacturing facility group for 2026, the Switzerland-based group has revealed a brand new title for the interim interval. Having beforehand revealed its chassis had been rebranded as ‘Kick Sauber’, on New Yr’s Day Sauber introduced its group title shall be Stake F1 Crew.
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Crew principals
Not like the drivers on the grid, there are a few adjustments to the line-up of ten group principals who shall be sitting on the pit wall this season. Essentially the most notable change being on the group previously generally known as AlphaTauri who’ve bid farewell to Franz Tost, the person who led Purple Bull’s junior group since they bought the previous Minardi squad in 2005.
As an alternative, the group have swapped the oldest group principal on the grid to 46-year-old Laurent Mekies. Previously the sporting director of Ferrari and beforehand concerned in race management on the FIA earlier than that, Mekies may be very aware of the Faenza-based group.
Mekies labored as a race engineer at Minardi earlier than its takeover by Purple Bull, engineering Christijan Albers in 2005, earlier than changing into chief engineer of the renamed Toro Rosso group, being a part of the group who celebrated Sebastian Vettel’s well-known Italian Grand Prix victory at Monza in 2008. Having left Ferrari in the midst of final season following information of his appointment, New Yr’s Day will formally be Mekies first as group principal.
The one different change is at Alpine. After former group principal Otmar Szafnauer was relieved of his duties by house owners Renault, together with sporting director Alan Permane, following final yr’s Belgian Grand Prix, Bruno Famin took the reigns as interim group principal. Though Famin was alleged to be an interim stand in for the position, it’s believed that he’ll proceed within the position for the 2024 season, reasonably than Alpine appoint a alternative.
Races
A document 24 grands prix deliberate on the 2024 F1 calendar – probably the most in historical past. In the end the schedule shall be made up of the identical 23 occasions that had been initially deliberate for final yr, solely with the return of the Chinese language Grand Prix to the championship for the primary time because the covid pandemic meant the race has been off the schedule since 2019. Zhou Guanyu will subsequently compete in his house grand prix for the primary time in April.
The Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix in Imola, having been cancelled final yr as a consequence of extreme flooding within the area within the lead as much as the occasion, ought to return to the calendar in Could. Nevertheless, for the primary time since 2019, there won’t be a brand new grand prix this yr following the addition of the Qatar, Miami and Las Vegas grands prix over the past three seasons.
After the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix turned the primary race to be held on a Saturday since 1985 final yr, there shall be three races on Saturdays this season – the season opener in Bahrain, the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix and the spherical in Las Vegas as soon as extra. The Japanese Grand Prix strikes from its conventional Autumn slot to the fourth spherical of the season in April – the earliest the race has ever been held. The season will once more finish in Abu Dhabi, however will end in early December for the primary time since 2021.
Once more, there shall be six dash rounds this season. Nevertheless, two of them will host the format for the primary time – the Chinese language and Miami grands prix. Simply as in 2023, the Purple Bull Ring, Circuit of the Americas, Interlagos and Losail circuits will maintain the remaining dash rounds.
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Rule adjustments
Very similar to final season, the technical laws will stay largely static for 2024 in comparison with the earlier yr. As such, Purple Bull group principal Christian Horner informed RaceFans that he expects the world champions to face larger competitors from their rivals this yr in consequence.
Nevertheless, following the intense warmth that led to a number of drivers struggling bodily sickness and exhaustion through the Qatar Grand Prix, the FIA have adjusted the technical laws for this season to allow groups to put in what is named a ‘driver cooling scoop’ which, because the title implies, helps to channel air travelling over the automotive in direction of the cockpit in a bid to supply a cooling stream of air for drivers.
After commencing growth into strategies to cut back spray generated by automobiles in moist circumstances final season, the FIA may even proceed to check and work on rear wheel covers in an effort to enhance security for drivers within the moist. Tyre suppliers Pirelli shall be permitted to run 40 days of devoted tyre testing with groups this season, with a further 4 days devoted to testing moist climate tyres.
With the beginning of the brand new yr, groups shall be permitted to run 2022-spec automobiles underneath the ‘testing of earlier automobiles’ programme, used to supply F1 runs for growth drivers in non-public. This yr would be the first season that groups shall be allowed to take action utilizing their 2022 automobiles which use the bottom impact aerodynamic idea at present utilized by present F1 automobiles.
In a notable change to the sporting laws, the FIA has dramatically elevated the utmost nice it could apply to groups and drivers within the occasion of a penalty. The earlier higher restrict of €250,000 has quadrupled to €1 million (£870,000).
After a number of incidents of flares in grandstands in recent times on the Austrian and Dutch grands prix, the FIA has additionally prohibited any ‘pyrotechnical units’ from any of its occasions – together with Method 1 – with out prior permission.
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Method 1
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