2024 Formula One World Championship
The 2024 FIA Formula One World Championship was a motor racing championship for Formula One cars and was the 75th running of the Formula One World Championship. It was recognised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, the governing body of international motorsport, as the highest class of competition for open-wheel racing cars. The championship was contested over a record twenty-four held around the world.
Drivers and teams competed for the titles of World Drivers' Champion and World Constructors' Champion, respectively. Defending Drivers' Champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing dominated the opening 10 races with seven wins, however the season as a whole was highly competitive with a record-making six other drivers claiming multiple Grand Prix victories. McLaren driver Lando Norris emerged as Verstappen's closest competitor as the MCL38 began to consistently outperform the RB20. Verstappen continued to perform consistently at the front of the field and maintained his points advantage to win his fourth consecutive Drivers' Championship title at the. Verstappen's title made him only third drivers' champion after Keke Rosberg in 1982 and Nelson Piquet in 1983 to win the drivers' championship with a team that finished 3rd or lower in the constructors' championship, and the second driver after Piquet to win the drivers' championship in a team that did not become constructors' champions on two or more occasions. McLaren surpassed Red Bull and went on to achieve their ninth Constructors' Championship title at the, narrowly ahead of Ferrari by just 14 points. With their first Constructors' Championship victory in 26 years, McLaren became the first constructor other than Red Bull and Mercedes to win the title since Brawn in 2009.Entries
All teams competed with tyres supplied by Pirelli. Each team was required to enter at least two drivers, one for each of the two mandatory cars.Free practice drivers
Throughout the season, each team had to field a driver in one of the first two free practice sessions who had not competed in more than two races, on two occasions, once for each car. Oliver Bearman's debut for Ferrari at the did not count, as he only participated in the third practice session.Team changes
ended their partnership with Sauber and left Formula One following the conclusion of the 2023 season as Sauber prepared to become the Audi works team from 2026. The team was rebranded as Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber, competing with the constructor name Kick Sauber. AlphaTauri rebranded as RB and relocated the aerodynamics operations of the team to Milton Keynes in the United Kingdom amidst a management restructure.Driver changes
The only change from the drivers contracted at the beginning of occurred at the former AlphaTauri team, who replaced Nyck de Vries with Daniel Ricciardo from the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix onwards. All driver and team combinations that competed in the final round of the previous season remained unchanged for the start of the next season for the first time in Formula One World Championship history.In-season changes
was forced to withdraw from the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix after he was diagnosed with appendicitis and required an appendicectomy. He was replaced by Ferrari reserve and Formula 2 driver Oliver Bearman, who made his Formula One debut. Sainz returned at the following Australian Grand Prix. Kevin Magnussen of Haas received two penalty points for causing a collision at the Italian Grand Prix, taking his total to twelve penalty points in twelve months, and triggering an automatic race ban for the following Azerbaijan Grand Prix. He was replaced by Bearman, who raced for the second time in the season as a reserve driver. Magnussen returned at the subsequent Singapore Grand Prix. Bearman replaced Magnussen at Haas again during the São Paulo Grand Prix for the free practice and sprint sessions as Magnussen felt unwell. This was later expanded to the rest of the weekend following sprint qualifying.
From the Italian Grand Prix onwards, Formula 2 driver Franco Colapinto replaced Logan Sargeant at Williams, making his Formula One debut. Sargeant was replaced following a series of poor performances, with team principal James Vowles stating that the driver change would give the team the best chance to score points over the remaining rounds. Daniel Ricciardo was dropped from RB due to poor performance ahead of the United States Grand Prix with Helmut Marko, head of the Red Bull's driver development programme, stating that Ricciardo had lost his "killer instinct". He was replaced by the reserve driver Liam Lawson, who drove in the season in place of the injured Ricciardo at the same team, then known as AlphaTauri. Reserve driver Jack Doohan made his debut at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, where he replaced Esteban Ocon at Alpine, after Alpine required Ocon to vacate his seat to drive for Haas in the post-season test.Calendar
The 2024 calendar comprised a record twenty-four Grands Prix. The Chinese, Miami, Austrian, United States, São Paulo and Qatar Grands Prix featured the sprint format.Calendar expansion and changes
The Chinese Grand Prix returned to the calendar for the first time since 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 the preceding year due to flooding in the area, also returned to the calendar. The Japanese Grand Prix moved from its traditional October autumn date to one in April as part of the efforts to group races in regional blocks to help address environmental concerns surrounding travel between races. As a consequence the Azerbaijan Grand Prix moved from April to September. The Russian Grand Prix was under contract to feature on the 2024 calendar. However, the contract was terminated in in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.Regulation changes
Technical regulations
In response to extreme weather conditions resulting in cockpit overheating during the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix, teams were now allowed to install a "scoop" to the car that is intended to cool down the driver and cockpit area. Teams were not 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 were still allowed to do other preliminary research and development work not covered by these restrictions.Tyres
The "alternative tyre allocation" trialled at the 2023 Hungarian and Italian Grands Prix, where drivers were given 11 sets of tyres in an attempt to cut costs in the sport, was discontinued. Therefore, teams reverted to having 13 sets of tyres available per driver during every non-sprint race weekend with the allocation being 12 sets for a sprint weekend. The C0 tyre compound, which was introduced but not used during the season, was dropped from the tyre line-up. This compound was previously known as the C1, but was renamed at the start of the 2023 season following the introduction of a new C1 compound that slotted between the old C1 and current C2 compounds in terms of hardness. A proposed trial for a ban on tyre blankets for this season and a full ban in 2025 was abandoned.Sporting regulations
Appeals process
The decision appeal process was amended for the 2024 season. The deadline to submit a right of review request was reduced from fourteen to four days after an event. In an attempt to stop potentially frivolous appeal attempts, the FIA also introduced a fee for the process.Sprint weekend structure
The structure of the sprint weekends was changed again for 2024, with the goal of rationalising sprint events and separating them from the rest of the Grand Prix weekend. A sprint weekend began with a single practice session, followed by the sprint qualifying session, which set the starting grid order for the sprint race. The sprint was then the first session to take place on Saturday, followed by qualifying for the main race. The Grand Prix itself remained on Sunday. The FIA sporting regulations for the championship now referred to the qualifying for the sprint as "sprint qualifying", as opposed to "sprint shootout". The term "sprint qualifying" was previously used in the inaugural season of the sprint format in 2021 to refer to the sprint itself. Additionally, sprint weekends now had two separate parc fermé periods as opposed to one. The first lasted from the beginning of sprint qualifying to the end of the sprint, and the second lasted from the beginning of qualifying for the Grand Prix until the start of the Grand Prix itself.The rules for DRS usage in Grands Prix were adjusted slightly. Drivers were now allowed to use DRS one lap after a race start, safety car restart, or red flag restart, one lap earlier than in previous seasons. This modification, tested during sprint events in 2023, was implemented to encourage earlier overtaking opportunities and increase competitiveness in the opening stages of a race.Power unit allocation
The FIA increased the number of internal combustion engine components and associated power unit elements allowed per driver from three to four per season. This change was made to accommodate the record-length calendar and reduce the frequency of grid penalties caused by engine wear and failure.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 qualifying. 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 applied on both in-laps and out-laps.