The F1 season starts here

Today is Wednesday, 21st of February 2024.

The highly anticipated beginning of this year's FIA Formula One World Championship is about to kick off. The Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain will host three days of official pre-season testing that start today and promise to be jam-packed with activity.

It's noteworthy that for the first time ever, all teams and drivers will remain the same. However, we're aware that this will change in 2025 since Sir Lewis Hamilton is set to join Ferrari. This is a significant move that adds more excitement for the future, especially with the possible contenders competing for the Mercedes seat alongside George Russell in the following months.

The complete details of that story will be revealed later on. For now, all ten teams are gearing up for an exciting year ahead. It's expected to be a year full of unexpected surprises, with the longest-ever calendar of 24 Grands Prix along with six Sprint Races.

Currently, every team has a limited window of three days for concentrated testing that spans a maximum of 24 hours on the track. Moreover, the teams are bound to operate only one vehicle at a time, which adds to the challenge.

People who are looking forward to a more challenging championship in 2024 due to Red Bull's dominant performance in the previous season will be keeping an eye out for any indications that other teams have improved during the off-season. This has sparked interest because it seems that many of Red Bull's competitors have adopted some of the successful design features of the RB19 car, while the RB20 has continued to evolve.

Usually, it's not smart to make conclusions about how well a team will do in the upcoming season based on their lap times during pre-season testing. This is because teams will deliberately vary things like fuel levels, engine settings, and tire types during these tests. However, since there's just a short time gap between the testing phase and the first Grand Prix, which will happen on the same track just a week later, it's more likely that the lap times will reveal which teams are starting off strong and which ones will have to work harder to catch up. It's pretty certain that this season will be incredibly tough for those in the latter group.

British audiences have the option to view every session as it happens on Sky F1.