All Info You Want to See Before the First 2024 F1 GP Starts

The 24-race calendar for the 2024 Formula 1 World Championship starts this Saturday with the Bahrain Grand Prix. There's always excitement ahead of the start of a new F1 racing campaign and the hope for every team and its fanbase is to compete for the biggest prizes available.

Will Red Bull Be Dominant Again?

For Red Bull Racing and Max Verstappen, the probable prize is to win another World Championship in dominant fashion, with pre-season testing suggesting that the Austrian team is, once again, on the right path regarding its car development. Sergio Pérez will also look for some more victories, but he will have to work extremely hard to beat his teammate at any point in 2024.

While Haas recorded the most laps in testing with 441 (2,386km), Ferrari and Red Bull followed with 416 (2,251km) and 391 laps (2,116), respectively. Lap time isn't always the main priority in testing and the fastest lap times were produced with the C4 tyre, which will not be available this weekend at the Bahrain International Circuit. Still, Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc put Ferrari at the top, with the Spanish driver recording a 1:29.921 min lap on Day 2 of the three-day session, and Leclerc a 1:30.322 min lap on the final day.

Charles Leclerc, Pierre Gasly, Yuki Tsunoda and Max Verstappen attend the Drivers Press Conference during day three of F1 Testing

Among drivers, Haas' Kevin Magnussen put up the most laps (239 - 1,293km) but finished last in single-lap pace, with a 1:33.053 min lap as his best. Carlos Sainz finished his test with the second-most laps (224 - 1,212km) rounding out a solid three-day test for the Scuderia Ferrari and its challenger, the SF-24.

While Ferrari looked solid in testing, Red Bull is still tipped to be the dominant force in the early stages of the 2024 Formula 1 season, with the RB20 looking like a world-beater. Of course, other teams, like Mercedes (Sir Lewis Hamilton and George Russell) were content with their results and the W15's behaviour around the 5.412km circuit, but we will find out who's on top when Q3 rolls around on Friday.

The 2024 F1 Grid

We know that the 2025 Formula 1 season will give us Lewis Hamilton wearing Ferrari red and it will unleash other changes in the paddock. However, the 2024 F1 campaign sees no changes in the grid, with lineups looking identical to the end of the 2023 season. For the first time in F1's rich history, teams and drivers remain the same ahead of a new season (based on how 2023 finished), except for the name changes for teams like AlphaTauri (now RB) and Alfa Romeo-Sauber (now Kick Sauber)

Red Bull: 1 Max Verstappen, 11 Sergio Pérez
Mercedes: 44 Lewis Hamilton, 63 George Russell
Ferrari: 16 Charles Leclerc, 55 Carlos Sainz
McLaren: 4 Lando Norris, 81 Oscar Piastri
Aston Martin: 14 Fernando Alonso, 18 Lance Stroll
Alpine: 10 Pierre Gasly, 31 Esteban Ocon
Williams: 23 Alexander Albon, 2 Logan Sargeant
Visa Cash App RB: 22 Yuki Tsunoda, 3 Daniel Ricciardo
Kick Sauber: 77 Valtteri Bottas, 24 Zhou Guanyu
Haas: 27 Nico Hulkenberg, 20 Kevin Magnussen

2024 Bahrain GP Facts & Figures

The 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix will be the 20th edition of the race and it will be the season-opening event for a sixth time.

The first Bahrain Grand Prix in Formula 1 history came in 2004, with Michael Schumacher winning the race for Ferrari. The Bahrain round will be the season-opener of a Formula 1 season for the sixth time, after hosting the first race of the 2006, 2010, 2021, 2022, and 2023 seasons.

Fernando Alonso followed Schumacher’s win in 2004 with two straight triumphs in 2005 and 2006 for Renault. Then, Ferrari returned to victory in Bahrain, with Felipe Massa taking consecutive wins in 2007 and 2008.

Jenson Button won for Brawn GP in 2009, while Alonso won in his Ferrari debut in 2010, in the Endurance layout of the circuit. The 2011 race was canceled due to social issues before Vettel and Red Bull took wins in 2012 and 2013.

Hamilton won in Bahrain in 2014 after a stunning fight with his then-Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg. Hamilton won again in 2015, while Rosberg succeeded in 2016.

Vettel won for Ferrari in 2017 and 2018 before Hamilton and Mercedes struck back with three consecutive wins from 2019 to 2021. Charles Leclerc won for Ferrari from Pole in 2022, and his teammate Carlos Sainz completed a 1-2 for the Maranello-based team, ahead of Mercedes' Hamilton. Last year, Max Verstappen won for Red Bull (his first win in a season-opener) and led a comfortable 1-2 for the team, with Sergio Pérez second.

In the 2020 race, Haas’ former driver, Romain Grosjean, had a miraculous escape after a crash in the first lap of the race that luckily ended with the Frenchman suffering only burns on his hands and not something worse.

Among drivers, Hamilton leads the table in terms of victories in Bahrain with five, while Ferrari sits at the top amongst teams with seven wins in Bahrain, followed by Mercedes with six and Red Bull with three triumphs.

This race will be the 1,102nd Grand Prix in Formula 1 history.

Bahrain International Circuit

The Bahrain International Circuit is a facility with six different layouts. Five of those have received Grade One recognition from the FIA. Since 2004, 17 races have taken place in the Grand Prix layout, and the 2010 event was held in the Endurance, 6.299 km layout.

The Grand Prix layout has 15 corners and is 5.412 km long. The track will have three DRS zones. The zones will be in the main straight, the straight that unites turns three and four, and the back straight between turns 10 and 11.

The track has given us some exciting races in the past and the DRS zones usually allow defending drivers to enter corners mostly alongside the DRS-powered cars, which is a perfect situation for close, wheel-to-wheel racing.

The fastest lap around the Bahrain International Circuit was 1:31.447 min in the 2005 race, by Pedro de la Rosa in the McLaren MP4-20, while the fastest lap in any session took place in the 2020 qualifying session when Hamilton did a 1:27.264 min lap.

Last year's Pole Position time from Max Verstappen's Red Bull RB19 was a 1:29.708 min lap. In the race, the Fastest was a 1:33.996 min lap by Zhou Guanyu.

This year's race will be the 21st F1 Grand Prix in Bahrain, including the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix in the 'Outer Circuit' layout.

2024 Bahrain Grand Prix - Tyres

The dry tyres for the 57 laps of the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix will be the C1 as P Zero White hard, C2 as P Zero Yellow Medium, and C3 as P Zero Red soft.

Pirelli explained their view ahead of the first race of the year with a press release: "Just a week after pre-season testing concluded, Formula 1 returns to Bahrain for the first round of the 2024 season, from Thursday, February 29 to Saturday, March 2. The usual grand prix weekend schedule has been brought forward by one day – as will be the case the following weekend in Saudi Arabia too – with two free practice sessions on Thursday, FP3 and qualifying on Friday, then the grand prix itself on Saturday. This move has been made by Formula 1 to accommodate the start of Ramadan on the second Sunday of March.
The teams come to Sakhir with plenty of information about how the car and tyre package works on this particularly abrasive track, where traction and braking stability are key to performance: both on a flying lap as well as on longer runs.

Track evolution is somewhat limited, with temperature being the biggest influence: two of the three free practice sessions take place in the heat of the day, making it harder to get a representative read on race data. Another factor often affecting the cars is wind, as it can blow sand onto the track and also make the balance unpredictable. Thermal degradation will be significant and can have a decisive impact on race performance, while wear is generally limited.

The Bahrain Grand Prix is traditionally one of the most spectacular races of the year as it offers a number of different overtaking opportunities, particularly in Turns 1, 4, and 11. Tyre degradation, with all the resulting different race strategies, also creates interesting performance differentials.

Last year, a two-stopper using the C1 and the C3 was the favoured strategy, with the C2 used by only one team (McLaren)."

The minimum starting pressures will be 22.0 psi (front) and 19.0 psi (rear).

2024 Bahrain Grand Prix - Weather Forecast

Due to the start of the Islamic holy month, Ramadan, on 10 March, the first two races (Bahrain and Saudi Arabia) will be celebrated on Saturdays to accommodate the back-to-back events.

Thursday, Feb 29th - FP1 & FP2
Conditions: Clear and breezy
Max. temperature: 20°C
Chance of rain: 0%

Friday, Mar 1st - FP3 & Qualifying
Conditions: Windy
Max. temperature: 21°C
Chance of rain: 0%

Saturday, Mar 2nd - Race
Conditions: Mostly cloudy
Max. temperature: 21°C
Chance of rain: 0%

Who will be on the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix podium?

2023 Bahrain F1 GP Podium: 1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) 2. Sergio Pérez (Red Bull) & 3. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)

The first 57 laps of Formula 1 racing in 2024 could give us a great spectacle in Sakhir, with Red Bull and Ferrari perhaps enclosed in a big battle for victory. Mercedes, on its side, seemed cautious after the pre-season test at the same circuit, but certain hints indicate that the team could have a good package for the upcoming event, so we should not write them off from contention for victory just yet.

Aston Martin and McLaren could also be in contention for podiums and the Top 5 as both teams closed 2023 nicely and had a good base to build for the upcoming campaign.

After 308,238 km on Saturday, we will have our first winner of 2024 and if we're surprised by the results or not, we're just hoping for a solid race with intriguing storylines.

Red Bull vs Ferrari vs Mercedes: who you're going for during the first Grand Prix of the 2024 F1 season?

Our prediction for the top three of the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix is 1. Max Verstappen, 2. Charles Leclerc, 3. Carlos Sainz.

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