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 (FIA), 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 Grands Prix 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 started off the season with seven wins in the opening 10 races, but was pressured by McLaren driver Lando Norris for the rest of the season after his RB20 fell behind Norris's MCL38 in terms of performance. Verstappen performed consistently at the front of the field and maintained his points advantage to win his fourth...

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. [ 2 ] : Article 32.4c Oliver Bearman 's debut for Ferrari at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix did not count, as he only participated in the third practice session. [ 33 ]

Alfa Romeo 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. [ 34 ] [ 35 ] The team was rebranded as Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber, competing with the constructor name Kick Sauber. [ 25 ] [ 36 ] AlphaTauri rebranded as RB and relocated the aerodynamics operations of the team to Milton Keynes in the United Kingdom amidst a management restructure. [ 18 ] [ 37 ] [ 38 ]

The only change from the drivers contracted at the beginning of 2023 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. [ 39 ] [ 40 ]

Carlos Sainz Jr. was forced to withdraw from the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix after he was diagnosed with appendicitis and required an appendicectomy . [ 41 ] He was replaced by Ferrari reserve and Formula 2 driver Oliver Bearman , who made his Formula One debut. [ 9 ] Sainz returned at the following Australian Grand Prix . [ 42 ] 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 trig...

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. [ 48 ] 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...

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. [ 60 ] 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 ...

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. [ 67 ]

The FIA increased the number of internal combustion engine (ICE) 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. [ 73 ]

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. [ 75 ] However, prior to Friday's third practice session and qualifying, the rules wer...

The standard sanction for a driver overtaking another driver off the track and gaining a lasting advantage was 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. [ 77 ]

From the Miami Grand Prix onwards the FIA altered the regulations for judging a potential jump start . Under the previous regulations, stewards were unable to penalise a driver for a jump start if it had not been picked up by an FIA transponder . This rule led to Lando Norris of McLaren appearing to avoid a penalty despite visibly moving early at the start of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix . The update to regulations allowed stewards to penalise a driver if they were moving before the start, even ...

During the summer break, the regulations were updated to allow teams to create mule cars based on existing cars from the 2020 – 2023 period to enable teams to better prepare for the changes to the technical regulations due for the 2026 season. Teams using the mule cars would only be allowed to use drivers with 500 kilometres (310 mi) of experience of driving a current Formula One car at consistent racing speeds. [ 80 ] [ 81 ]

The season began with a Red Bull 1–2 at the Bahrain Grand Prix . Max Verstappen took pole position ahead of Charles Leclerc and George Russell . Verstappen's teammate, and 2023 Championship runner-up, Sergio Pérez qualified fifth, half a second behind Verstappen. [ 85 ] Verstappen won the race by 22 seconds, ahead of Pérez and Carlos Sainz Jr. [ 86 ] Verstappen led every lap and took fastest lap, for his fifth career grand slam . Charles Leclerc, who started on the front row, finished fourth hav...

Red Bull Racing continued to show their pace at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix with Verstappen taking pole, [ 91 ] and winning the race in "dominant" fashion, securing his 100th podium. [ 92 ] [ 93 ] Verstappen led the opening laps of the race. A safety car period, following a crash involving Lance Stroll , was called on lap 7. Verstappen, along with the top 5, chose to make a pitstop during this phase, with Norris inheriting the lead. Verstappen overtook Norris for the lead on lap 12, and held it...

Alex Albon crashed his car heavily during the first practice session for the Australian Grand Prix, writing off the chassis. With no spare chassis available, Williams made the decision for Albon to take over Logan Sargeant's car, with Sargeant withdrawing from the weekend. Team principal James Vowles justified this decision by arguing Albon had a better chance to score points, and praised Sargeant for his sportsmanship. [ 97 ] Verstappen took pole position, with Sainz second and Pérez qualifying...

Verstappen took pole position at the Japanese Grand Prix , 0.066 seconds ahead of Pérez, who had his first front-row start since the 2023 Miami Grand Prix , with Norris third and Sainz fourth. [ 102 ] The top five maintained their positions at the race start, before the race was red-flagged due to a heavy crash that involved Daniel Ricciardo and Alexander Albon at turn three, which necessitated repairs to the tyre barriers. The top runners again maintained position at the restart, with Verstappe...

Despite taking pole for the Chinese Grand Prix , Verstappen struggled in qualifying for the first sprint weekend of the season, only qualifying fourth behind sprint pole-sitter Norris, followed by Hamilton and Fernando Alonso . At the beginning of the sprint, Hamilton took the lead from Norris, who slid down to seventh at the first turn. The former would lead for nearly half of the sprint's distance before Verstappen overtook him and won the sprint from Hamilton and Pérez. Verstappen went on to ...

At the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix , Verstappen equalled Ayrton Senna 's record of most consecutive poles in Formula One history at eight. He also secured his fifth win of the season, ahead of Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc, who finished second and third, respectively. [ 110 ]

Leclerc took pole position at the Monaco Grand Prix , ending Verstappen's run of eight consecutive pole positions; the latter qualifying sixth on the grid. At the start, Pérez got into a crash with Magnussen and his teammate Nico Hülkenberg , causing a red flag. The Alpines of Ocon and Gasly also had a collision, with the former retiring as a result. Ocon received a grid penalty for the following race in Canada. Leclerc took his first win since the 2022 Austrian Grand Prix and the first at his h...

After Verstappen and Russell set identical lap times during qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix , Russell secured pole position by virtue of setting the time first. The race began under intermediate conditions. Ferrari recorded its first retirements of the season when Leclerc and Sainz failed to finish, with Leclerc experiencing engine issues. Sainz meanwhile spun at turn 7 and collected Albon, who was the last Williams on track at that time as Sargeant had retired earlier. This was Ferrari's...

Norris took pole position at the Spanish Grand Prix , but lost the lead to Russell after a slow start. Verstappen overtook Russell on lap three and led the remainder of the race to take victory ahead of Norris and Hamilton, who recorded his first podium of the season and Mercedes' second podium in a row. [ 113 ]

The Austrian Grand Prix featured the third sprint of the season. Verstappen took pole position for the sprint, which he proceeded to win ahead of the McLarens of Piastri and Norris. Verstappen also took pole position for the main race and was on course to win after leading the majority of it, but Norris soon closed the gap to him after a slow pit stop for Verstappen, who was now on older tyres with Norris having a tyre advantage. After multiple laps battling for the lead, Verstappen and Norris m...

At the Azerbaijan Grand Prix , Leclerc took the pole position ahead of Piastri and Sainz, while Verstappen qualified sixth and Norris down in 17th. Norris would make up two places after Hamilton and Ocon were relegated to a pit lane start for changing power unit components during parc fermé . In the race, Leclerc maintained his lead off the line with Piastri in second, ahead of Pérez in third. The front-runners started on the medium tyres before swapping them for hards. The leading trio maintain...

At the Singapore Grand Prix , Norris took pole position, led all laps, and won comfortably ahead of Verstappen and Piastri. However, he was denied his first grand slam by RB driver Daniel Ricciardo who set the fastest lap of the race, [ 121 ] in what would turn out to be his final Grand Prix before departing the team days later and being replaced by Liam Lawson . [ 51 ]

At the United States Grand Prix , Verstappen took pole position for the sprint, led all laps, and won comfortably ahead of Sainz and Norris who took pole position for the main race ahead of Verstappen and Sainz. Fourth-placed Charles Leclerc took the race lead on lap one and went on to win. Leclerc finished ahead of teammate Sainz for a Ferrari 1–2, and Norris finished third on track before being dropped to fourth behind championship rival Verstappen due to receiving a penalty. Lewis Hamilton en...

At the Mexico City Grand Prix , Sainz took pole position for the race, but briefly lost the lead to second-placed Verstappen. He passed the lead Red Bull, who would later receive two separate ten-second time penalties for forcing Norris off-track and gaining an advantage. Sainz led all laps from lap nine onwards to take a comfortable win, the second consecutive for Ferrari, and the fourth win of his career. Leclerc was running in second for the majority of the race before he survived a near-enco...

At the São Paulo Grand Prix , Piastri took pole in sprint qualifying, with Norris second, Leclerc third, and Verstappen fourth. The top four kept the position they started in for the first 17 laps, until Verstappen passed Leclerc for third on lap 18. On lap 20, Hülkenberg retired due to a mechanical failure, necessitating a virtual safety car. Shortly before the virtual safety car was deployed, McLaren swapped their cars, putting Norris into the lead. Norris finished the sprint first, ahead of P...

Points were awarded to the top ten classified drivers, the driver who set the fastest lap during the Grand Prix (only if one of the top ten), and the top eight of the sprint . [ 138 ] [ j ] In the case of a tie on points, a countback system was used where the driver with the most Grand Prix wins is ranked higher. If the number of wins was identical, then the number of second places is considered, and so on. [ 140 ] Points were awarded using the following system: