Season Overview

With 24 races 2024 is the longest F1 season ever. It's been a season with much interest and a lot of competition. Four teams and seven drivers won GPs this year, which meant that many races were less predictable than usual.

I listened to one of many podcasts leading to the final race, and a frequent topic of conversations was: "Is this the best season ever". Amongst all the analysis and opinion, I was most impressed with the simple clarity of Andrew Benson (Autosport journalist) who said ... "Any season where the drivers championship is decided with 2 races to go can not be the best season!". What's your opinion?

Max won 7 of this season's races and he claimed his 4th successive drivers title. At the start of the season it appeared the Red Bull was dominant as Max won 6 of the first 9 races. Sainz in Australia, Norris in Miami and Leclerc at Monaco preventing a whitewash. Mercedes drivers joined the challenge with Russell wining the 10th race in Austria and Hamilton the 11th. At the halfway stage Verstappen had over half the wins; but Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes were clearly making developmental advances to threaten Red Bulls dominance.

Red Bull never managed to regain their early season advantage; and in a season reminiscent of Jenson Button's 2009 season, where he won 6 of the first 7 races to take an easy lead; then didn't win again in the rest of the season, but had enough point scoring finished to win the drivers title.

Unlike Button's Brawn season, Red Bull were able to continue development and had a car which was always competitive for podium positions in the hands of Verstappen. In the outstanding race of the season in Brazil, Verstappen demonstrated his sublime skill in wet weather races to win a race starting from 17th on the grid. Anyone doubting Max's ability must have been convinced by his drive that if not "the best" drive ever, it certainly ranked alongside performances by Hamilton, Schumacher, Vettel, Senna, Rodriguez, etc, as rain-meister master classes.

The Brazil victory making the championship almost certain, was completed when Verstappen won in Qatar to gain an unbeatable points total.

The constructors championship was closer. Red Bull's second driver was the lowest scoring driver of the top 4 teams; and contributed only 152 points compared to Verstappen's 437. This restricted Red Bull to only 3rd place in the championship! Mercedes had a competitive car at hot tracks - and a temperamental diva at tracks with cooler temperatures. Their up and down form placed them 4th in the drivers championship.

Ferrari and McLaren headed the constructor race and if Ferrari could outscore McLaren in the last race they would be champions. Their chances where hampered when Leclerc gained a 10 point grid penalty for a exceeding battery limits, and qualifying 14th which placed him at the back of the grid! Leclerc started 19th when penalties were applied to other drivers.

Hamilton joined Leclerc at the rear of the grid when his final qualifying lap in Q3 was hampered by a plastic track limit bollard being dislodged by Magnussen 's Haas and got trapped in Hamilton's front wing at turn 9, ruining his last run. Hamilton started 18th.

McLaren had a front row lockout with Norris and Piastri 1st and 2nd respectively. Hulkenberg was 3rd with Verstappen 4th.

The Race

Could McLaren fail to take the points for the constructor's championship? Verstappen tried to make it possible! A clean start led to Verstappen passing Hulkenberg into 3rd on the run to T1. Seeing a possibility of gaining another place Verstappen dived to the inside, only to collided with Piastri who's McLaren spun before rejoining dead last. Seemingly confirming Russell's pre race comments that "Max can't handle adversity. He's a bully who lashes out with borderline violence."

Verstappen's radio call that he was 'alongside' Piastri wasn't supported by the camera's; and he was fortunate to be able to continue the race in 11th position. The stewards agreed and gave him a 10s penalty for causing an avoidable collision.

[ Piastri's sardonic comment "Yep, move of a 4 times champion"; perhaps highlighting the Jekyll/Hyde character that seems to inflict many of the most competitive champions.]

In the mayhem at turn 1 as drivers slowed to avoid the spinning cars, Leclerc managed to navigate through from 19th to 8th on track! A gain of 11 places in a few hundred yards? With Piastri dead last, could Leclerc join Sainz in closing down Norris to beat McLaren to the constructors title?

Ironically, as the Virtual Safety Car period from the L1.T1 collision ends on lap 3, Piastri finds himself attempting to overtake Franco Colapinto, but collides with him in the process. He too is awarded a 10s stop/go penalty,

Hamilton, the other out-of-position driver, gets to 10th from 18th by lap 10 of 58 laps. Could Leclerc and Hamilton continue their progress from the back of the grid to make a challenge at the front?

By Lap 16, Russell is 3rd with Leclerc 4th, Verstappen 5th and Hamilton 6th. Norris and Sainz still a long way ahead in 1st and 2nd. Lap 29 and Bono (Hamilton's race engineer) predicts that "we have a plan here. Possible P3. I reckon we can do this".

Bono's prediction is almost correct: Hamilton passes Russell on lap 58 of 58 to take 4th place. Norris maintains his flag/flag control and takes the win, which means that McLaren take the constructors championship.

Norris, Sainz, Leclerc, Hamilton, Russell , Verstappen, Gasly, Hulkenberg, Alonso and Piastri complete the final point scoring top 10 of 2024.

Driver Changes

Of these, Sainz and Hamilton completed their final race for their current team. Hamilton's 246 races and 6 world titles with Mercedes ends as he moves to Ferrari next year to replace Sainz. Sainz moves to Williams to join Albon for 2025.

Kimi Antonelli joins Mercedes to replace Hamilton. Jack Doohan already replaced Esteban Ocon in this final race, and he drives alongside Gasly in the Alpine team next year. Oliver Bearman joins Haas, and Gabriel Bortoleto joins Sauber.

Drivers saying goodbye, or perhaps au revoir, to F1 are:- Zhou Guanyu leaving Sauber, Kevin Magnussen leaving Haas and Valtteri Bottas leaving Williams.

Sergio Perez has a contract for 2025, but will Red Bull be prepared to accept such an under performance from their second driver? Time will tell.

Conclusion

Its been a great season, both on and off track... Looking forward to more of the same from March 2025