The F1 grid for the 2024 season is already historic

With the extension of Logan Sargeant at Williams, the starting grid for the 2024 Formula 1 season is now complete.

The 20 drivers who will line up their cars on March 2nd in Bahrain for the first Grand Prix of the 2024 season will be the same ones who competed in the last race of the 2023 season in Abu Dhabi. This is a first in the long history of Formula 1. Consequently, unless there are exceptional circumstances, there will be no rookies starting the first race of an F1 season, which is not unprecedented in history.

Since 1951, excluding the inaugural season of 1950, only one season has started with no rookies participating in the first Grand Prix. Therefore, the 2024 season will only be the second of its kind in 74 years.

The first [race] took place in 1969. That year, no rookie [driver] was entered in the first race of the season, which was held at the Kyalami circuit in South Africa. But unlike in 2024, the drivers entered in the last race of the previous season in 1968 were not all the same as those who had entered for the 1969 South African Grand Prix.

Some examples of seasons with only one rookie in the first race…

Rare are the seasons where only a few rookies were entered for the first race of the calendar. Among these, we can mention the season 1964 where only the Englishman Peter John Arundell was new to the start. The 30-year-old driver had indeed finished third in his first race held in Monaco, with the Principality opening the season that year.

Eight years later, in 1972, it’s Carlos Reutemann who takes part in a Formula 1 Grand Prix for the first time. He is the only rookie in his home Grand Prix in Argentina. For the opening of the 1972 season, Reutemann also secures the first of his six pole positions.

Closer to us, the seasons 2020 and 2022 also saw only one rookie start the season. This was the case for Nicholas Latifi in 2020, who replaced Robert Kubica at Williams, and Guanyu Zhou in 2022, who took Kimi Räikkönen’s seat at Alfa Romeo after he retired.

“…and with two rookies”

Among the notable seasons where only two rookies were involved in the first race, we can first mention the 1986 season. In the first Grand Prix held at the Jacarepagua circuit in Brazil, the Englishman Johnny Dumfries finished 9th in his only season in F1, driving a Lotus-Renault as teammate to Aytron Senna. Another rookie, Alessandro Nannini, also took part in his first race in the F1 World Championship, and three years later he would win his only Grand Prix in Japan, in a race marked by the collision between the two McLarens of Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna.

Other seasons have seen only two rookies compete in their first race. Interestingly enough, the last three seasons that took place in a year ending with the number « 8 » fall into this category. This includes the seasons 1998, 2008, and 2018.

In 1998, the year of Mika Häkkinen’s first title, Argentinian Esteban Tuero and Japanese Toranosuke Takagi took part in their first F1 Grand Prix. In 2008, the fortunate ones were Sébastien Bourdais and Nelson Piquet Jr. Finally, in 2018, Charles Leclerc and Sergey Sirotkin started their Formula 1 careers at the first race of the season. It is also worth noting that the recently concluded [2023] season saw two rookies on the starting grid for the first race of the year, McLaren driver Oscar Piastri and Williams driver Logan Sargeant.

The question remains whether rookies will take part in a Grand Prix in 2024, as was the case for Nyck de Vries at Monza in 2022, or for Liam Lawson in five races in 2023. If not, the 2024 season could be the first without any rookies starting in each race of the calendar.