February 29, 2024
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| formula1.com |
F1 is officially back! After months of a very eventful offseason, the 2024 F1 season will kick off this weekend with the Bahrain Grand Prix. Pre-season testing left us with a vague idea of this year’s pecking order but many questions still remain unanswered. Here is everything you need to know for the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix:
Weekend Schedule (in EST):
Practice 1: Thursday 2/29, 6:30-7:30 AM
Practice 2: Thursday 2/29, 10:00-11:00 AM
Practice 3: Friday 3/1, 7:30-8:30 AM
Qualifying: Friday 3/1, 11:00-12:00 AM-PM
Race: Saturday 3/2, 10:00 AM
Offseason = Silly Season?
It seems as though the F1 Gods decided to make up for last year’s meek silly season by throwing us for a loop at the start of this year.
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| Ayao Komatsu, Haas' new Team Principal au.motorsport.com |
In January, Haas announced that Ayao Komatsu would replace F1 icon Guenther Steiner as team principal. The move came after Haas finished at the bottom of the constructors championship for the second time in three seasons. It made sense that the team had to try something new to improve their performance, but nobody puts my man Guenther in a corner. He will be missed by the entire F1 community.
Come February, we had the shock of the century when Lewis Hamilton announced that he had signed a contract with Ferrari for 2025, making this his last season with Mercedes. Even though Hamilton has won all seven of his world championships with the German team, it does make sense that he would move teams. At this point, Hamilton is nearing the end of his career and any driver’s dream is to drive in Ferrari red. He has the glory, the championships, and the fame, so this is probably the last thing on his F1 bucket list before he retires. His move to Ferrari, however, leaves Carlos Sainz without a drive for 2025. With the way the 2025 driver market is already shaping up, summer break should be quite interesting.
Just a few days after Hamilton’s announcement, Red Bull’s parent company announced an independent investigation into team principal Christian Horner following accusations of “controlling and inappropriate behavior”. After weeks of deliberation, Horner was finally cleared of misconduct on February 28th and will continue to serve as the team’s boss.
Now, onto the 2024 season…
The 57 lap race will be held at the Bahrain International Circuit. This track, with 15 corners and 2 DRS zones, is made for close racing and overtaking. The lap opens with some heavy braking zones that provide the best opportunities for overtaking at T1 and T4, before drivers weave through a mix of low, medium, and high speed corners for the remainder of the lap. By the end, the pack is typically bunched up enough to be fighting for position when the start the next lap. This race isn’t just about driving style though. Since this is a night race, teams will really only have one representative practice session and being in the Middle East, there will always be a risk of a sandy and slippery track. Teams will be juggling a lot to make the most of this opening race.
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| Bahrain International Circuit formula1.com |
It seems like Red Bull and Adrian Newey have designed yet another championship winning car. The team dominated pre-season testing with some of the quickest times of the weekend, and both drivers have said that the car feels good and possibly better than last year’s. Testing is not completely representative of how the car will fare in a race, but I have a feeling Red Bull and Max Verstappen will continue their reign in 2024.
I also have a feeling (or maybe just a delusion) that this will finally be a McLaren year. My favorite Papaya team was able to keep pace with the other top teams during testing, but they also had to sort out some reliability issues. Regardless, I think McLaren will be in a good position if they continue the upward trajectory they were on at the end of last season. I am manifesting some Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri wins this season.
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| Here is your friendly reminder that Oscar Piastri won a Sprint Race in his rookie season last year. motorsportmagazine.com |
For the first time in a while, Ferrari had a successful pre-season testing. From what we could see, they looked strong and had improved drivability and consistency. Perhaps they are adopting George Russell’s “consistency is key” philosophy. They also might be adopting a new policy of not acting like clowns because team principal Fred Vasseur said he doesn’t want to shy away from bold strategy decisions. I’ll believe it when I see it.
The Mercedes was also quite fast. Their data wasn’t as good as Ferrari’s but drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were happier with this car than last season’s. We will have to see how long that lasts though because Mercedes has a history of turning on their car the moment it performs poorly. I don’t expect them to fight for race wins this year, but I think Mercedes could give McLaren and Ferrari a run for their money in the championship.
As for the mid-field, it looked like Aston Martin was still “best of the rest”. Visa CashApp Red Bull (VCARB), formerly known as AlphaTauri, seems to be up there with Aston Martin. Under the new leadership of Laurent Mekies, former Sporting Director at Ferrari, the rebranded team might stand a chance of competing for points. Don’t quote me on that one though. Haas was another average team. They look good for this year, but I am not expecting great things from that car.
The losers at testing really seemed to be Alpine, Williams, and Kick Sauber (formerly known as Alfa Romeo). All three teams have an uphill climb this season, but Alpine at least think they have a good foundation for their car. It could take just a few tweaks for Alpine to show improvement, but Williams and Sauber might need some more work.
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| Liam Lawson had an incredible run on his F1 debut last year. mirror.co.uk |
One more thing to look out for this season is the driver market. Many contracts will be up at the end of this year, and because no changes were made to the grid this season, the driver market is flooded with talent. You will have your obvious picks in current F1 drivers like Carlos Sainz, Logan Sargeant, Checo Perez, and Daniel Ricciardo looking for a drive to stay in the sport. But then, you will have a number of reserve or junior drivers like Liam Lawson, Felipe Drugovich, Theo Pourchaire, Jack Doohan, Ollie Bearman, and Frederik Vesti vying for that rookie seat in F1. And with openings at top teams like Mercedes and Red Bull, things could get quite dramatic.
That was a lot of information, but we had a lot to catch up on after the winter break. You might have to get used to this though, because I have a feeling we are in for some long posts this season. However for this weekend, I am just looking for a good race from McLaren and some signs of life down at Williams. Anything else will be icing on the cake.
I will be back after the race!
Happy 1st Race Weekend!
- Divya
Where I got these
from:
https://www.mclaren.com/racing/formula-1/2024/bahrain-grand-prix/guide-to-bahrain/
https://www.ferrari.com/en-US/formula1/articles/bahrain-grand-prix-2024-preview
https://www.haasf1team.com/news/bahrain-grand-prix-preview-1
https://www.visacashapprb.com/en/2024-bahrain-grand-prixview/
https://www.alpine-cars.co.uk/formula-1/f1-news/formula-1-bahrain-grand-prix-preview-2024.html
https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/39603149/horner-cleared-misconduct-investigation