Alfa Romeo ended their partnership with Sauber following the 2023 season, with Sauber preparing to become the Audi works team from 2026. The team was rebranded as Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber, competing under the constructor name Kick Sauber. AlphaTauri rebranded as RB and relocated their aerodynamics operations to Milton Keynes in the United Kingdom amidst a management restructure.
The only driver change from the 2023 contracted drivers occurred at the former AlphaTauri team, who replaced Nyck de Vries with Daniel Ricciardo from the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix onwards. All driver and team combinations that competed in the final round of the previous season remained unchanged for the start of the next season for the first time in Formula One World Championship history.
Carlos Sainz Jr. was forced to withdraw from the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix after being diagnosed with appendicitis and requiring an appendicectomy. He was replaced by Ferrari reserve and Formula 2 driver Oliver Bearman, who made his Formula One debut. Sainz returned at the following Australian Grand Prix. Kevin Magnussen of Haas received two penalty points for causing a collision at the Italian Grand Prix, taking his total to twelve penalty points in twelve months, triggering an automatic race ban for the following Azerbaijan Grand Prix. He was replaced by Bearman, who raced for the second time in the season as a reserve driver. Magnussen returned at the subsequent Singapore Grand Prix. Bearman replaced Magnussen at Haas again during the São Paulo Grand Prix for the free practice and sprint sessions as Magnussen felt unwell, later expanding to the rest of the weekend following sprint qualifying.
From the Italian Grand Prix onwards, Formula 2 driver Franco Colapinto replaced Logan Sargeant at Williams, making his Formula One debut. Daniel Ricciardo was dropped from RB due to poor performance ahead of the United States Grand Prix. He was replaced by the reserve driver Liam Lawson, who drove in the 2023 season in place of the injured Ricciardo at the same team, then known as AlphaTauri. Reserve driver Jack Doohan made his debut at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, replacing Esteban Ocon at Alpine, after Alpine required Ocon to vacate his seat to drive for Haas in the post-season test.
The 2024 calendar comprised a record twenty-four Grands Prix. The Chinese Grand Prix returned to the calendar for the first time since 2019 after being cancelled for four years due to difficulties presented by the COVID-19 pandemic in the country. The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, which was cancelled in the preceding year due to flooding in the area, also returned. The Japanese Grand Prix moved from its traditional October autumn date to one in April as part of the efforts to group races in regional blocks to help address environmental concerns surrounding travel between races. As a consequence the Azerbaijan Grand Prix moved from April to September. The Russian Grand Prix contract was terminated in 2022 in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
In response to cockpit overheating during the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix, teams were allowed to install a "scoop" to cool down the driver and cockpit area. Teams were not allowed to start wind tunnel or computational fluid dynamics work for the 2026 season until 1 January 2025, but were still allowed to do preliminary research and development work not covered by these restrictions. The "alternative tyre allocation" trialled at the 2023 Hungarian and Italian Grands Prix was discontinued, and teams reverted to having 13 sets of tyres available per driver during every non-sprint race weekend. The C0 tyre compound was dropped from the tyre line-up. The proposed trial for a ban on tyre blankets was abandoned.
The decision appeal process was amended, reducing the deadline to submit a right of review request to four days after an event, and introducing a fee to stop potentially frivolous appeal attempts. The structure of the sprint weekends was changed, with a single practice session, followed by sprint qualifying, and then the sprint race. Qualifying for the main race followed on Saturday. The parc fermé periods were also increased to two. The rules for DRS usage were adjusted, allowing drivers to use DRS one lap after a race start, safety car restart, or red flag restart, one lap earlier than in previous seasons. The number of internal combustion engine components allowed per driver per season was increased from three to four.
Rules were introduced to discourage drivers from driving too slowly on in-laps and reconnaissance laps during qualifying, initially requiring them not to exceed a maximum time taken to drive through each marshalling sector, but reverting to the 2023 full-lap method. The standard sanction for overtaking off-track and gaining a lasting advantage was upgraded from a five-second time penalty to a ten-second time penalty, although five-second penalties could still be awarded. Regulations were altered for judging a potential jump start, allowing stewards to penalise a driver if they were moving before the start, even if the transponder did not register the infringement. Penalties accrued during the sprint race which could not be served due to retirement could be transferred into grid penalties for the next race. Teams were allowed to create mule cars based on existing cars from the 2020–2023 period to prepare for the 2026 technical regulations, using drivers with 500 kilometres of experience of driving a current Formula One car. Regulations for red flag procedures were clarified, allowing cars to line-up on the starting grid instead of in the pit lane.
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