F1 2024 cars: What name has each team given their chassis for the 2024 season?

Sam Cooper 17 Apr 2024 11:40 AM

Ever wondered why F1 cars are called what they are?

Naming conventions in F1 go from the straightforward to the Ferrari – with some choosing to follow a simple pattern and others less so.

While we have already recapped just how teams tend to name their car, we are looking now at what the 2024 cars are called.

Red Bull – RB20

We will start with the champions and Red Bull are ones who keep it simple with RB for Red Bull and then the model number meaning the 2024 car is the RB20.

Interestingly though, there was no RB17 with Red Bull opting to use the same chassis for 2021 as they did in 2020 and therefore naming the later version the RB16B. When it came to naming the 2022 car, they decided to skip RB17 as they wanted to continue the trend of naming the cars in line with their season of competition.

Mercedes – W15

Mercedes are another team who like to keep it straightforward with a simple convention of W for Wagen meaning car in German.

When they returned to the grid in 2010 they opted for 01 as it was the first car developed in Brackley and have followed that pattern ever since.

Ferrari – SF-24

When it comes to Ferrari, you would be better off throwing a dartboard made up of letters and numbers then trying to predict what might come next.

2022’s car was named the F1-75 in tribute to Enzo Ferrari firing up the first F1 car, the 125 S, in March 1947, 75 years beforehand but in something of a surprise, the team kept a chassis convention for two years in a row – sticking with the thinking behind the SF-23 last year for the SF-24 in 2024. Nice and simple this time.

McLaren – MCL38

McLaren broke the norm in 2023 when they decided to call their 2023 car the MCL60 in recognition of it being 60 years since Bruce McLaren founded the team.

But before that, they had been using MCL followed by the chassis number since Ron Dennis left the team. But upon announcing their 2024 car, the team revealed it would be the MCL38, skipping MCL37 where the 2023 car would have been.

Aston Martin – AMR24

It is straightforward for Lawrence Stroll and co. with the 2024 car set to be called the AMR24. This stands for Aston Martin Racing 2024.

That was the same pattern for the team’s first car in 2021 and Racing Point before that followed a similar convention (RP19 etc.)

Alpine – A524

For 2024, Alpine kept their pattern and went for the A524.

There is a simple reasoning behind it with the cars being a mix of A500, the name of the F1 project, and the year. Their WEC chassis number out of interest is the A424.

Visa Cash App RB – VCARB 01

The hardest name to predict on this list was Visa Cash App RB, whose rebrand from AlphaTauri was confirmed in January and shortened name has been reported as V-CARB, or just RB.

It is set to be quite the year for the Italian team with their process moving closer to Red Bull’s and confirmation that AlphaTauri, the name of their clothing line, will be dropped.

Convention has previously had the names as the initials of the team followed by the model number (i.e STR1 for Scuderia Toro Rosso and AT01 for AlphaTauri) so the VCARB 01 makes sense.

Haas – VF-24

The origins of Haas’ car name date back to their owner, Gene Haas and his early business days.

In 1988, Haas Automation manufactured their first CNC machine which they named the VF-1, with the V standing for vertical which is the industry standard designation for a vertical mill and the F-1 added by Haas to unofficially designate it as the ‘Very First One’.

As a result, Haas F1 kept that tradition with the VF-16 combining the VF-1 with the year (2016) it was launched. That style has remained ever since with 2023’s car called the VF-24.

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Stake F1 (Sauber) – C44

Since their first entry of C12, Sauber have been using the C prefix for every model and what does it stand for? Christine, of course, which is the name of founder Peter Sauber’s wife.

As Alfa stop sponsoring the team and it becomes Stake F1 ahead of Audi’s arrival, it is suspected they will continue with this tradition which means 2024’s car should be called the C44, with sponsorship meaning it will be named the Kick C44.

Williams – FW46

The 1978 was the first time the Williams team designed their own car and it was called the FW06, taking owner Frank Williams’ initials and was the sixth car to be designed by the legendary motorsport figure.

The Williams team have occasionally added letters on the end to signal variants of the same model but by and large have gone from six onwards. Even after the Williams team was sold to Dorilton Capital in August 2020, the cars continued to follow this pattern with 2024’s edition called the FW46.