We're about to embark on the fourth grand prix of the longest Formula 1 season in history, and there's already been a surprise or two on track.
Those of you who tuned in for the Australian grand prix will already know that Red Bull's winning streak has finally been broken. After reigning world champion Max Verstappen had to retire due to a braking issue, Ferrari's Carlos Sainz won in Melbourne.
Carlos's achievement was even more remarkable than usual given the fact that only a fortnight before, he'd undergone emergency surgery to remove his appendix. This had ruled him out of the previous race in Saudi Arabia, with 18-year-old Formula 2 star Ollie Bearman stepping up and scoring points with a confident debut drive.
However, at this early stage, expect Red Bull to bounce back – although Ferrari has been doing its best to keep in touch with them particularly during qualifying.
Can Mercedes, in Lewis Hamilton's final season, offer a challenge, too? And is McLaren's impressive performance in Australia a sign of things to come for them?
Here's what the schedule is looking like as the season continues – and how you can tune in.
Formula 1 2024 schedule – grand prix and Sprint calendar
The Formula 1 schedule for 2024 sees a colossal 24 races. You can check it out in full here, but it kicked off in Bahrain (February 29-March 2), and concludes in Abu Dhabi (December 6-8).
Two grands prix return to the calendar – China, which means that Zhou Guanyu finally gets a home race in his third season in the sport, and Emilia Romagna, which was cancelled last year following severe flooding in the region of Italy where the race is held.
Elsewhere, some races move around the calendar, as Formula 1 tries to move to a more regionalised schedule. The Japanese grand prix has moved to April 5-7 from its usual September/October calendar placement, and the Azerbaijan grand prix moves from the first half of the year to September.
The Chinese, Miami, Austrian, US, Sao Paulo and Qatar grands prix will all be Sprint weekends – and there are five double-headers and an intense three triple-headers in the 2024 schedule.
Watch Formula 1 live in the UK on Sky
Sky Sports is the exclusive rights holder for full F1 coverage in the UK until 2029, so if you want to watch every session as well as support series like F2, F3, then you'll need to sign up. While highlights of the all-women's F1 Academy aired on Sky last year, this year it will be streamed for free on YouTube.
Sky also carries coverage of the IndyCar Series and its showpiece race, the Indianapolis 500. The top category of US open-wheel motorsport includes ex-F1 stars like Romain Grosjean, Marcus Ericsson and Alexander Rossi, plus current F1 reserve driver Pato O'Ward (who also races for Arrow McLaren in that series).
You'll also be able to watch selected live men's Premier League and EFL Championship football matches on Sky Sports, along with the Women's Super League, Scottish Premiership and the Bundesliga (featuring the likes of Harry Kane and Jadon Sancho). Sky's sports programme also includes top-level cricket, golf, and darts. It just launched a new tennis channel including ATP, WTA and US Open coverage.
Coverage prices vary but as a rough guide, customers can add all the Sky Sports channels to their package for £22/month, assuming a minimum 18-month contract.
Watch Formula 1 LIVE with Sky Sports
New Sky customers will need to subscribe to Sky Q, Sky Glass or Sky Stream to watch Sky's sports coverage live, and take up its base TV package, Sky Entertainment.
Customers who are brand new to Sky may wish to bundle Sky Stream hardware with Sky Sports, plus Sky Entertainment & Netflix, from £46 per month. There's currently the option to bundle Sky Sports with a Sky Stream package for £20 per month instead of the usual £28/month, presuming you're happy to commit to a minimum 18-month term.
Sky Glass prices differ, as you'll also pay for the TV set as part of your package.
Another option is NOW's Sky Sports membership, priced at £11.99 for a day or £34.99 for a month. Be on the lookout for promotions and discounts from time to time – at time of writing, new NOW customers can claim six months' Sky Sports membership for a reduced price of £26 per month.
Sky's on-air team includes commentators David Croft and Martin Brundle (who also call the action on F1 TV's English-language world feed), with Simon Lazenby, Natalie Pinkham and Rachel Brooks sharing hosting duties.
You can still expect to see the likes of Damon Hill, Anthony Davidson, Naomi Schiff, Karun Chandhok, Nico Rosberg, Danica Patrick and Jenson Button throughout the season – along with the one and only Ted Kravitz, whose stream-of-consciousness paddock stroll Ted's Notebook is a virtual treasure chest of memes, behind-the-scenes entertainment and plenty of awkward moments.
Watch Formula 1 free in the UK with Channel 4
Channel 4 holds the rights to extended, free-to-air highlights of every race, produced by the award-winning Whisper. C4 negotiates an agreement with Sky as the primary rights holder, which runs until the end of the 2026 season.
It's also confirmed that Whisper will continue to produce its F1 output for the next three seasons, with a recent announcement teasing "new features and additional talent being connected to the show".
While there will be on-site presence for Channel 4 at all races thanks to partnerships with other international broadcasters, it's confirmed that in 2024, "late-night highlight shows will be presented from an innovative, immersive studio location in the UK, while European races will be presented from the F1 paddock".
This is because Channel 4 and Whisper have committed to reduce emissions from their Formula 1 broadcasts, in the spirit of F1's own drive to improve sustainability.
Channel 4's F1 hosting duties are mainly undertaken by Steve Jones, with Lee McKenzie on standby to run the ship when Steve is unavailable. The wider broadcasting team has also included David Coulthard, Mark Webber, Billy Monger, Laurence Barretto and Ariana Bravo in recent years.
If you missed out on Channel 4's grand prix highlights and can't or don't want to take Sky, you can also catch up on All4 if you're in the UK.
Drive to Survive season 6 on Netflix premiere date and more
Formula 1: Drive to Survive season 6 premiered all 10 episodes on Friday, February 23 on Netflix.
The season premiere 'Money Talks' focused on Lawrence Stroll's grand ambitions for the Aston Martin team. 'Fall from Grace' looked back at Nyck de Vries' full-season debut – and the struggles later in the season that led to him losing his seat at AlphaTauri.
McLaren got its own episode, while Haas and Williams both featured in 'The Last Chapter'. At the halfway point of the season, 'Civil War' explored the competition between Alpine drivers Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly, and it's then followed up with an episode focused on Lewis Hamilton (while the synopsis mentions "his contract [is] up for renewal", he extended with Mercedes before he decided to leave for Ferrari).
'C'est la Vie' explored the celebrity consortium including Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds that invested in Alpine – and Otmar Szafnauer's sudden exit as team principal. There was also a standalone episode on Ferrari, another on Daniel Ricciardo's return to competitive racing – and Liam Lawson's F1 debut after Danny was injured – plus a finale focusing on the battle between Ferrari and Mercedes for second place in the constructors' championship.
Although it sounds from that like a lot was covered, a lot was also left out. If you want a quick round-up of what was missed, allow us to help you out.
Is F1 TV available in the UK?
Formula 1 streaming service F1 TV Pro carries live coverage of races, plus onboard driver cameras, a pitlane feed and data channels, including live timing and driver tracker maps. It also features "full unedited team radio" for all your sweary racing driver needs. Plus, you can watch full race replays.
Additionally, you can catch Formula 2, Formula 3 and Porsche Supercup coverage on the streaming service, which is available in over 85 countries.
A cheaper tier without live coverage, F1 TV Access, is available in a further 33 countries. This has live timing and audio commentary, plus exclusive documentaries and shorts. It also has 650 archive grands prix or highlights, with a library going back to the 1980s. New seasons are added every so often, depending on where you're based.
Sign Up F1 TV Pro (available in select countries)
You can get F1 TV Access only in the UK for £19.99 per year or £2.29 per month.
If you're in the US, you can sign up for F1 TV Pro for $79.99 per year or $9.99 per month.
Sky has exclusive live rights to the sport in the UK, so F1 TV Pro isn't yet available in the UK. It's highly unlikely that this will change this decade unless the rights are completely renegotiated. Sky's agreement for live UK and Ireland coverage of Formula 1 now runs until 2029.
A note on the F1 TV website says: "Over time we will be looking to increase the number of countries where F1 TV is available and to also provide an ever-increasing amount of live video content along with historical races from our archive."
You can watch F1 TV in your web browser or on iOS, Android, Amazon Fire and Roku. You can also cast from another device using Apple AirPlay and Chromecast.
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Kate (they/she) joined Digital Spy in 2011 after studying journalism at Salford University, and has 15 years' experience as a writer and editor. They have previously worked at organisations including the BBC and Metro, and contributed to various music websites, blogs and zines while based in Manchester.
During her time at DS, Kate has previously been a freelance sub-editor and chief sub-editor. Kate's team were proudly nominated in the Best Subbing/Production Team category at the BSME Talent Awards 2022.
