For the first time in Formula 1 history, the starting grid for the first race is the same as the one used for the season finale this year. A season without a single driver ransferring teams in the winter off-season has never occurred since the series started in 1950.
By giving Logan Sargeant his second contract, Williams became the final team to announce their driver lineup for the 2024 campaign. To let the 23-year-old know he would be sticking around after his debut season, team principal James Vowles waited until after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in November.
With no drivers switching over the winter, Formula 1 made history.
With their drivers already committed to multiple-year contracts, only Alpine, Ferrari, McLaren, and Red Bull were guaranteed spots for 2024. However, Aston Martin decided to allow Lance Stroll’s rolling contract to extend once more. Williams, Haas, Mercedes, Stake F1 Team, Visa Cash App RB, and Stake F1 Team all made new agreements.
Last August, Haas took proactive measures to extend the contracts of Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg by one year. Lewis Hamilton was also given fresh deals by Mercedes for 2024 and 2025 in August. The 39-year-old, however, has decided to break free from those conditions and will join Ferrari in 2025.
September saw the signing of Zhou Guanyu, the first full-time Formula One driver from China, to a contract with Sauber, who will compete as Stake F1 Team in 2024. In September of last year, Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo were both given deals for 2024 by AlphaTauri, which is now known as Visa Cash App RB.
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Eddie Jordan attacks Formula 1’s “scandalous” lack of rookies.
In March of last year, Sargeant was one of three rookies starting in the 2023 Formula One season’s first race. Oscar Piastri debuted in a Grand Prix with McLaren in Bahrain as also. Although Nyck de Vries began the year at AlphaTauri, Ricciardo would win the position after just ten rounds.
Jordan is furious now that the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix has seen the ten teams creating F1 history by keeping the same grid. The previous team owner is furious that none of the teams chose to give a young player a chance. He argues that having no rookies in Formula 1 is “simply wrong.”
Jordan said on the Formula for Success podcast, “I am very sad.” I can’t even begin to express how distressing this is. It’s the ten teams that I actually blame.
It is disgraceful. Negative vision and foresight are present. I think it is a disgrace for all of the teams, big and small, to not make it their mission to develop young players and provide us in the media a marker by which to determine who the best rookie of the year was. Not this year, unfortunately. It is simply incorrect.
