The Formula 1 2024 season will kick off in Bahrain this week, but much has changed during the winter break. Here’s our cheat sheet to what you need to know before the season returns.
The biggest racing news to catch recent headlines is no doubt Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari in 2025, meaning this will be his final season with Mercedes. The British seven-time world champion has been with the German team for 12 years, winning six of his seven world championships there along with 82 race wins and 74 pole positions. The record remains unbeaten, but following the change in regulations in 2022, Mercedes’ dominance between 2014 to 2021 came to end, with the team pursuing a zero sidepod design that ultimately proved unfruitful. The underperforming car, combined with the fact that Hamilton is fast approaching 40 years old, are no doubt some of the top reasons the legendary driver has decided to make the jump, joining the Italian Scuderia after this season in hopes of grabbing his eighth, and record-breaking, world driver’s championship.
WIth Hamilton moving to Ferrari in 2025, naturally one of the two current seats have to be vacated, and that unfortunately fell on Spanish driver Carlos Sainz Jr., who transferred from McLaren to the Scuderia back in 2021. After 66 races under his belt for the team in red, he’s achieved five pole positions, 18 podiums and two race wins for the team, but despite his efforts, teammate Charles Leclerc has consistently beaten him on the WDC rankings at the end of each season, giving Ferrari a relatively straightforward choice in who to let go. While much of the grid has yet to be decided for the 2025 season, Sainz has yet to confirm any concrete move to another team, although recent rumours suggests he’s eyeing for the second seat at Red Bull to replace Sergio Perez.
With Red Bull and Max Verstappen’s dominance over the past three years, it’s clear why all eyes were on them during Bahrain testing last week. The biggest revelation was the RB20 car’s design, which saw the team’s chief technical officer Adrian Newey adopt a zero sidepod design for the challenger, an incredibly bold move following Mercedes failure to make the concept work. While testing times never provide a clear image of the pecking order given that every team is on different run plans and fuel loads, there’s been a pervasive feeling within the paddock that the RB20 has managed to perfect what Mercedes couldn’t, with multiple drivers from various teams commenting on how strong and on-rails the RB20 looks. This said, we’ll have to wait until the Bahrain GP this weekend to see just how successful the design turned out.
For the first time in five years, the Shanghai Grand Prix is back on the calendar. China’s only GP had previously been cancelled for half a decade due to the ongoing pandemic, but with that behind us, Formula 1 is ready to revisit the Shanghai International Circuit. The 56-lap race will take place on the weekend of April 19 to 21, with a sprint race scheduled as well to make the return to Shanghai even more exciting. For us in Hong Kong, who are just a short flight away from Shanghai, this is amazing news.
The F1 calendar gets more and more packed each year, and now in 2024 we’re about the get the longest race calendar ever. 24 Grands Prix all across the globe combined with six sprint races mean the five red lights will go out for a whopping 30 times. It won’t only be a test of speed, but also of endurance, as teams fight to maintain their cars and keep their drivers, engineers and mechanics energised and motivated. The season will start with the Bahrain GP on March 2 and end on December 18 at the Abu Dhabi GP. As tough as it is for the teams on the grid, it’s no doubt great news and entertainment for fans.
Lifestyle Editor
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