2024 Formula 1 season review: A one-of-a-kind campaign

Jonathan Victoria • 09 Dec 2024 Features

Our views on how the 2023 Formula 1 season went.

What a season 2024 was. I’ll be honest and put my hands up and say heading into this year, I wasn’t excited. For the first time in my life, I wasn’t excited for a new F1 season. And then when we started the year with Red Bull still on top, I really lost interest.

But I still tuned in, even for Australia's early start, and that's when I knew it wouldn’t be as straight-forward as it seemed. 

Now, at the end of probably the greatest season I’ve ever witnessed (sorry 2012, 2024 takes the crown now), I can say without a doubt 2025 will be sensational.

But before we get there, I’ve got to give out my awards for the year and give my driver ratings.

So without further adieu, here is my 2024 Formula 1 season review.

2024 Formula 1 season review: Rundown

It seems like a decade ago but do you remember the antics that went on even before the cars even set out on track in Bahrain? Lewis Hamilton’s surprise move to Ferrari, the Christian Horner debacle and subsequent Red Bull personnel fallout. 

It was pure madness, but as soon as cars poured out for practice one of the first weekend, it seemed it was going to be business as usual - at least, just for a bit.

The Milton Keynes-based team and their star driver, the now three-time world champion Max Verstappen, had a somewhat easy time in the opening 10 rounds, with the Dutchman winning seven of those races.

Thankfully though, things didn’t carry on that way, as from round three in Australia, it was clear that Ferrari were going to be capable of pouncing on any missed chance from Red Bull.

It took McLaren five rounds to regain the ground they had lost to the Bull's over the winter break, then just one further round for them to give Lando Norris his first career win.
 

So from Miami, we realised that the season would not be so easy for Red Bull, with both the Prancing Horses from Maranello and the Woking-based Papaya outfit ready to bring the fight.

It was only really when Mercedes started piping up that we saw Red Bull faltering. That’s definitely more coincidence than anything else, especially considering the German side's change in fortune coincided with Red Bull’s drop off, which was likely due to Adrian Newey’s announcement of his departure from the team at the end of the season and his immediate removal from all Formula 1 projects.

Suddenly, after over a year of Red Bull dominance, we had a situation where there were four teams and seven drivers who were more than capable of winning (sorry not sorry, Perez).

From Austria onwards, there was no doubt that Verstappen was going to have a fight on his hands, and it was equally as clear who his main challenger was.

Norris, who had finally got his first win, was now in a position to not just win a few more races, but actually claim the Drivers’ Championship. 

I’m assuming you’ve kept up with the season so you know how it went, so I can skim past the latter portion of the campaign. But some of the highlights were:

• Lewis Hamilton finally winning again after two and a half years, taking an emotional victory at Silverstone
• Oscar Piastri winning his first race in Hungary, although this also marked the first time we saw the stress McLaren and Norris were under thanks to the title fight, which looked very much on for him to win
• Norris demolishing the competition at Verstappen’s home Dutch GP after the summer break to prove he’s ready for the fight
• Ferrari’s back-to-back wins in the US and Mexico to hold back Norris from the title as well as let McLaren know they aren’t going to have an easy run to the Constructors’ Championship either
• Verstappen’s all-time great drive in torrid conditions at the Brazilian GP, which with Norris’ failures during the race, essentially secured him the title
• Norris’ solid win in the season finale to wrap up McLaren’s first Constructors’ title since 1998

I think that's about it. There were some events further back in the field, but if I included them then you’d never finish reading.

2024 Formula 1 season review: End-of-season awards

We may not have the prestige of the FIA Prize Giving Ceremony, and we don’t have any physical trophies, but the Digital TV F1 end-of-season awards still mean something!

Here are the award categories and my top three for each from this season.

Best driver

1. Max Verstappen – 19 wins, 21 podiums, 12 pole positions
2. Charles Leclerc – 3 wins, 13 podiums, 3 pole positions
3. Lando Norris – 4 wins, 13 podiums, 8 pole positions
    

In the case of Verstappen, it’s clear why he gets the number one spot. He won the championship, looked strong in the first part of the year and showed up when it mattered to secure the title.

If the season had finished after the Mexican Grand Prix, then it would be a different story. He’d still be champion, but his antics in that race in particular plus the fact that he hadn’t won a race in four months by that point had many questioning if he was really deserving of a fourth title.

He quelled those comments in Brazil by producing one of the greatest drives in Formula 1 history. It didn’t win him the title then, but it essentially put the championship to bed.

Then there’s my controversial two and three. For the die-hard Norris fans reading, I’m not just doing this because I find you annoying, I genuinely don’t think Lando should be ranked higher than Leclerc.

For probably half of the total races this season, McLaren had the strongest car over any weekend, and if it wasn’t the best, it was still definitely the second strongest. Norris should have been getting results every weekend, he should have won more races, and without a doubt, he should’ve won the championship this year. 

But he didn’t, because he didn’t have the bottle enough times. Those jokes about losing his lead at the first corner are more than just jokes, they are reflections on his inability to get the result. As such, I can’t put him ahead of Leclerc.

The Monegasque gets the second spot because he was able to get the results when the car was there for Ferrari. Carlos Sainz also capitalised a couple of times, but it was Leclerc who break his Monaco curse, who sensationally won in front of the adoring Tifosi in Monza, and who basically cost Norris the championship purely by also looking at the situation and realising he has a chance too. 

He and Ferrari may not have come away with the gold, but to me it’s quite clear who was better this season between Norris and Leclerc.

Best team

1. McLaren – 6 wins, 21 podiums, 8 pole positions
2. Ferrari – 5 win, 22 podiums, 4 pole positions
3. Red Bull – 9 wins, 18 podiums, 8 pole positions
    

I don’t see any reason to rock the boat with this one, the Constructors’ Championship result is good enough to me.

Red Bull started the year strongly and put a firm grip on retaining their title, but ultimately, with McLaren, Ferrari and even at certain points Mercedes out-performing them, they lost their hold. They couldn’t replicate Verstappen’s feat of winning at the start and holding out.

Seven of their nine wins came at the beginning of the year, largely before all their problems. As soon as the others caught up, they couldn’t compete as well.

McLaren made the big strides forward again this year, although at least at the start of this year they weren’t at the literal back of the grid.

If you want to call me hypocrite for criticising Norris in the last section but praising McLaren here then go ahead, but those are two completely different situations. Norris failed because of his lack of end product, McLaren did not.

As I said, for most of the season, McLaren had the best car. They deserved the world championship, and they got their prize for it.

That being said, Ferrari in my opinion equally deserved it. They too showed strength when the track suited them, maybe even more so than McLaren. Ferrari finished with more double podiums (5-3) and 1-2 finishes than McLaren (2-1), although you can put that down to the drivers.

But again, the car still had to be there for the drivers to get the most out of to get those results. 

In the end, it was incredibly close to me, and I might go as far to say that they both deserve the number one spot here. But I am going to give it to McLaren simply because the did win the title, even if it was only by 14 points.

Best race

1. Brazilian Grand Prix
2. British Grand Prix
3. Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
    

Credit: EXTENDED HIGHLIGHTS! 2024 São Paulo Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1, YouTube)

There were quite a few good races this year that could’ve made the top three. Hungary was a special one for me since it was the first Grand Prix weekend I had ever attended (although it was ruined right at the end by a minor case of a burst appendix).

The Belgian Grand Prix was also one I enjoyed; Russell’s stellar tyre whispering then defensive driving to cross the line first making for great viewing, but his disqualification kind of ruined that.

My top two I reckon are most people’s favourites from this year. First should be a no-brainer at least. 

Brazil is prone to a crazy race, but this year was a treat. Qualifying alone was hectic, but the race that came later in the day was sensational.

I already pointed out Verstappen’s performance earlier but it cannot be overstated how incredible a drive it was. Everyone else was suffering and sliding, while Max looked like it was just a gentle drive in the drizzle.

The British Grand Prix was also fairly manic. The changeable weather conditions, the uncertainty of who will take the victory. And the end was proper edge-of-your-seat stuff, the will he won’t he of Hamilton finally taking his first victory since Saudi Arabia 2021. Top stuff.

Then in third, I was going to either Las Vegas or Austria as they were both fairly entertaining, but I’m going with Abu Dhabi not for the race itself, but for the general warm feeling the whole weekend had.

There were a lot of goodbyes during the weekend, each one producing as strong emotions as the next. Hamilton’s departure from Mercedes may have taken centre stage, but with Magnussen, Bottas, Zhou and Colapinto (for now) all leaving the sport, it was a weekend of tears for sure.

The race was also quite decent I thought, particularly the start with our world champion regressing to his pre-Mexico self by taking out Piastri and making the fight for the Constructors’ Championship all that more interesting.

Leclerc and Hamilton’s fights through the field from the back were brilliant, which is a terrible sign for all the rest with them set to be teammates next year.

Best rookie

1. Franco Colapinto
2. Oliver Bearman
3. Jack Doohan
    

This is quite an odd one this year as there weren’t any full-time rookies on the grid heading into the season.

However, there were three drivers who made their debuts in F1 during the season, so that’s what we’re basing the award on.

Of course, the one that made the most appearances deserves the top spot. Colapinto stepped in when Williams had enough of Logan Sargeant, and at first he was a proper breath of fresh air.

Colapinto impressed so much so in his first five outings that he had Red Bull boss Horner chatting to Williams boss James Vowles on weekend, which many suggested would’ve been about the Argentinian taking over from Perez from 2025.

He then tapered off a bit after Brazil, which wasn’t a great race for him or the team at all, but Williams as a whole didn’t have an overly-impressive end to the season, so how much that can be put on him I think is minimal.

Second place goes to Oliver Bearman. He basically secured an F1 seat for 2025 after one race, where he took over from Sainz in Saudi Arabia and actually scored good points.

That’s a really brief overview of how impressive that feat really was, so let’s expand.

Bearman was called up on short notice, on the Saturday shortly before practice three, so he only had one hour to get in a Ferrari, his first time in an F1 car during a race weekend, before he had to go out for qualifying. 

He qualified in 11th, missing out on a debut Q3 appearance by under a tenth of a second. He then proceeded to have a remarkable race, finishing in seventh ahead of Hamilton and Norris, all the while making some brilliant moves that he simply should not have been making.

That race on its own was commendable. He showed up again two more times place of Kevin Magnussen, this time with his team for next year Haas, during the Azerbaijan and Brazilian Grands Prix, where he finished 10th and 12th respectively.

Then there was Jack Doohan, who was announced to be driving for Alpine next season in place of the outbound Esteban Ocon, and was given an early debut in Abu Dhabi when the Enstone team dumped Ocon early.

Doohan has had multiple drives in Alpine cars but had never gotten an opportunity like he had in Abu Dhabi. As such, he didn’t wow anyone, but he also didn’t really put a foot wrong. 

In comparison to his teammate Gasly it didn’t look great, but given it was his first weekend, he gets a pass. 

Biggest surprise

1. Alpine finishing sixth in the Constructors’ Championship
2. How poor Sergio Perez was
3. Sainz winning in Australia two weeks after having an appendectomy/Gasly costing Alpine £0
    

I’m sure I’m probably missing something else that was quite surprising but to me, these three things are my picks.

Alpine had a literal tractor at the start of the year. They didn’t even need the first race to know that, from pre-season testing it was clear they were going to be in for a rough ride. Then Bahrain did come along and we really saw how bad it was, qualifying 19th and 20th.

As the season went on, they slowly - and I do mean slowly - went on, they started to find a bit more performance. Not a lot, but they weren’t dead last anymore. They were picking up a point or two here and there, which was good for them.

Then they had a double podium finish in the mental Brazilian GP. I don’t think I can add to that, that line alone says so much.

The 33 points they got from that race, plus another fifth place and seventh place finish for Gasly in the final two races, somehow meant that they were able to finish sixth in the standings, earning themselves an extra $30m compared to the ninth place finish they really should’ve had.

The next surprise to me was how bad Sergio Perez was this year, because I really was rooting for him to turn it around.

He didn’t start off bad, managing to help Red Bull pick up three 1-2 finishes in that initial bright spell for them at the start of the year.

But then the usual Perez drop off happened, which usually comes when they start racing in Europe, and he dropped off hard this time and never recovered.

I thought ‘maybe he’ll be able to get one win, maybe he’ll sneak a victory somewhere.’ But other than Azerbaijan, where he looked good only for his efforts to be undone by crashing with Sainz late on, he just couldn’t perform. Whether he’ll be in a seat for 2025 is yet to be seen, but surely money alone can’t keep him there.

I couldn’t decide which deserved the third spot more, so I went for Sainz’s win in Australia, which came two weeks after having an appendectomy, and Gasly finishing the year having cost Alpine £0 in damage.

The Sainz one for me was made more impressive given the fact I too suffered from appendicitis during this season, so I know how insane it was that he even got into the car for the weekend, let alone go on to win the race.

I can’t quite relate to Gasly’s feat though (although I’ve never had to get any work done on my car), but I know how impressive that is too.

I’ve seen people say ‘no cus he crashed with Ocon in Monaco and had damage in Las Vegas’, which are good points, but they weren’t his fault. The stat counts for any damage he had caused, and he caused none, hence why he cost Alpine £0 this season, something which I don’t think will ever be repeated.

2024 Formula 1 season review: Driver ratings

Finally, I’m going to give our driver ratings for every driver this season. It's not exactly like the F1 power rankings system; I’ve not gone into detail about statistics and whatnot. I just didn’t want to give definitive full or half points, so it’s a full 0-10 scale going up by 0.1 (it makes a difference, alright). 

The ratings have been worked out by the drivers’ relative performance compared to the situation. For the teams at the back, it was based on who could get the most out of their car, while further forward it was based on how consistent they were.