HONE

The chase of Verstappen is about to begin again

The new Formula 1 season is upon us, with all the usual questions and excitement that come at the start of a fresh campaign. The big one is, of course, can anyone challenge Red Bull and Max Verstappen? But there are many others that we attempt to answer in this week’s F1 2024 season preview special.

As Alex Kalinauckas points out in our analysis of last week’s Bahrain pre-season test (page 18), Red Bull’s radical racer looks ominously impressive, but the pace and consistency of Ferrari has given some hope that things won’t be quite so one-sided in 2024.

As well as all the key data from testing, we take a look at the tech battlegrounds in the third year of this ground-effect era (p24), look at the challenges facing Charles Leclerc (p32), Lewis Hamilton (p36), Fernando Alonso and Lando Norris (p40). We also have our traditional team-by-team guide (p44) and essential calendar info (p55).

The increasingly competitive World Endurance Championship also kicks off this weekend, in Qatar. Gary Watkins brings you the latest from the Prologue test (p6), speaks to the key players about the chances of toppling Toyota (p56), and runs through the Hypercar manufacturers (p62). James Newbold is your guide to the new LMGT3 class and the main contenders on p72.

● Thanks to the extra pages in this week’s bumper issue, we’ve had to increase the cover price. We’ll return to our normal price next week.

Kevin Turner Chief Editor

kevin.turner@autosport.com

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COVER IMAGES MERCEDES-BENZ GROUP AG ; FERRARI; SAM TODD/RED BULL CONTENT POOL; CONOR MCDONNELL/ASTON MARTIN; M LAREN; SIMON GALLOWAY/ MOTORSPORT IMAGES; ZAK MAUGER/ MOTORSPORT IMAGES; RISHI/UNSPLASH; ROLAND LARSSON/UNSPLASH

PIT & PADDOCK 6 WEC contenders hit the track in Qatar 8 New doubts over Audi’s F1 future? 11 Obituary: Wilson Fittipaldi 12 Bahrain Grand Prix preview 14 Opinion: Alex Kalinauckas 15 Feedback: your letters

F1 2024 SEASON GUIDE 16 All the new cars on track 18 How the teams stacked up in testing 23 The key stats from Bahrain 24 F1 2024 technical analysis 28 Autosport’s trackside verdict 32 Leclerc’s big challenge 36 Hamilton’s last Mercedes hurrah 40 The patient pair chasing Red Bull 44 Team by team guide 55 Calendar and how to follow the season

WORLD ENDURANCE PREVIEW 56 Can anyone stop Toyota? 62 Hypercar manufacturer guide 72 GT3 joins the WEC party

RACE CENTRE 77 World of Sport: NASCAR Cup; Supercars

CLUB AUTOSPORT 85 Obituary: Joel Pearson 86 Smalley and Balfe in Garage 59 line-up 88 House tackles East Riding in Aston 90 The rise of MSV’s special UK events

FINISHING STRAIGHT 95 What’s on this week 96 From the archive: 1957 German GP 98 My favourite car: Kelvin Burt

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29 FEBRUARY 2024 AUTOSPORT.COM 5