SEATTLE - With the Bahrain Grand Prix just around the corner, this weekend a new Formula 1 campaign will get underway in the Middle East with the first Grand Prix of the 2024 season which is set to be the longest-ever, with a total of 24 races.
Defending champion Max Verstappen returns as the favorite to win yet another drivers' crown. The Dutchman won his third F1 title in a row in fashionable manner, getting 19 wins in 24 races for a total of 575 points and with a huge gap between him and second-place (290 points).
In an attempt to retain both their drivers' and constructors' titles, Red Bull Racing made some changes to the design of its car. Taking inspiration from rivals Mercedes, Red Bull Racing added a few key features to help Max Verstappen's car cool off. This year's model also celebrates the constructor's 20th season in racing's elite league since joining Formula 1 in 2005. In those 20 years, Red Bull Racing has won a total of 6 constructors' titles, with Mercedes being the only team to win more in that period (8).
Staying with Red Bull, certainly one of the drivers with the most things to prove this season is Mexican superstar Sergio 'Checo' Pérez, who will be out of contract with Red Bull Racing by the end of the 2024 season. 'Checo' had the best campaign of this career in 2023, finishing second in the drivers' championship only behind teammate Max Verstappen.
If Pérez wants to compete with Verstappen for that title, the Mexican will need to start just as strong as he did in 2023, getting four podiums in the opening five races of the season (won two). When asked on a F1 podcast what made his teammate so hard to beat, Pérez replied saying "I think he's really at one with the car. He gets to a race and knows exactly what he needs to do to go faster and is always improving. He (Verstappen) is a driver that doesn't make mistakes often."
When asked about what went wrong last season, the Mexican driver was very honest in his answer. "I know that if I am able to maximize my opportunities I will have a good year. What happened last year I think was that we missed a lot of progression throughout the weekend, improving from Friday to Sunday will be key. Last year we started really well but kind of just stayed there," he added.
The 2024 season will also mark the last one for Lewis Hamilton as part of the Mercedes team. The legendary British pilot made his debut in 2007 and has won a joint-record seven drivers' championships, six of them with Mercedes. Since the controversial finale in 2021 that saw Hamilton lose the drivers' championship to Verstappen, Hamilton has failed to win a single race.
Just last month, Ferrari and Hamilton shook the world by announcing that the seven-time world champion would join the Italian team starting in 2025, putting an end to his 12-year, 82-win relationship with Mercedes.
Although Hamilton remains as the winningest driver in history (103) and with more pole positions (104), he is currently on a 44-race drought without a win. Thanks to his new deal with Ferrari, 2024 will be the last season of Hamilton with Mercedes, where he won six of his seven championships after joining from McLaren in 2012.
Another interesting storyline ahead of the 2024 season will be at Aston Martin. The oldest driver currently in Formula 1 returns for his 20th season in the circuits with still something to prove. Last year, Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso had a fantastic season finishing fourth among all drivers, surprising the whole racing world by getting podiums in six of the first nine races of the season.
The 42-year-old Spaniard, who has a record 376 starts in Formula 1, has not won a race since his Ferrari days but he was really close of ending that drought in 2023. The former two-time world champion has not won a Formula 1 race in over 10 years, during his Ferrari years. The last event that the veteran driver won was actually in home soil, crossing first in the Spanish Grand Prix of 2013.
Thanks to his great performances last year, Aston Martin's team boss Mike Krack is working on keeping Alonso with the team beyond the 2024 season.
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