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F1 will host the opening two races of the 2024 season, in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia respectively, on Saturday instead of Sunday because of the countries celebrating the Ramadan festivities.
As reported by Motorsport.com, the upcoming season will begin in the Middle East as Bahrain will host the season-opener on March 2. However, to accommodate the festivities of Ramadan, which begins on March 10, F1 will host the Saudi Arabian GP in Jeddah on Saturday, March 9.
The move also compelled the Bahrain GP organizers to shift their slot as well and conduct the main race a day prior on Saturday. It meant that the first two practice sessions for both Bahrain and Saudi Arabia will be held on Thursday while the qualifying will be moved to Friday with the main race on Saturday.
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Williams F1 driver previews the 2024 season with the FW46
Williams F1 driver Alex Albon has said that the FW46 felt very "different" to its predecessor on the simulator.
The Thai driver spoke about the team's effort to minimize the deficiencies of the previous iterations of the car. He said (via Motorsport.com):
"Very different – more than anything, different feeling, so a different driving style [is needed]. "I don't want to speak too soon, but the FW45 always had some consistent limitations with the car, especially when we went to tracks like Monaco or Barcelona they were highlighted."
"Low speed was always a big issue for us, braking was always a big issue for us, but also high-speed, long corners were difficult for us. Definitely, in the simulator you can see that these areas have improved, but at the same time that comes with quite a different driving style."
Alex Albon also spoke about the time invested by the team to develop the 2024 car, adding:
"This year especially, we've sacrificed a little bit of development time on the FW45 to focus on the FW46, shorten the number of upgrades we had on the car, to make sure that we tried to attack this car a little bit more aggressively and really start to change the DNA of the car. That's the plan. Let's see if it happens."
Williams F1 and Albon will look to carry their momentum forward from the 2023 season and have another strong year in 2024.
