After Formula 1’s gruelling marathon of a 24-round, 30-race season, the earliest events inevitably fade most quickly from memory. But one detail immediately recalls how much the first races of 2024 felt like a continuation of the previous season: Max Verstappen’s victory in the Chinese Grand Prix was his 11th from the previous 12 rounds.
Charles Leclerc will be measured directly against the most successful Formula 1 driver of all time this year. Last year he once again out-scored Carlos Sainz Jnr, though there wasn’t much between the Ferrari team mates, and there were days Leclerc didn’t quite have the pace. But the combined strength of their driver line-up was
Lando Norris refused to entertain suggestions he had blown a chance to win the world championship immediately after Max Verstappen sealed last year’s championship. Red Bull may not have repeated its consistent dominance of previous seasons, he acknowledged, but it was still the team to beat, most notably at the beginning of the year. But
George Russell went into his sixth season as a Formula 1 driver knowing that his team mate’s impending departure was an opportunity for him to assert himself as Mercedes’ new team leader. He rose to the challenge superbly, often getting the most out of his W15 when the team was able to coax its fickle
The watching world learned what the 2024 season meant for Carlos Sainz Jnr when Ferrari made its bombshell announcement that he would lose his seat to Lewis Hamilton at the end of the year. Already a multiple race winner, Sainz was now on the driver market. Sainz made a strong start to this crucial year.
It said a lot about how well Oscar Piastri performed in his second full season as a Formula 1 driver that he got in the way of his team mate’s championship bid at times, and even handed him a victory once. But there were also several occasions when the more experienced Lando Norris showed he
After the highs of his first season at Aston Martin, 2024 was a demoralising year for Fernando Alonso. The team gradually lost contact with the front-runners and slipped into the midfield. In the year he celebrated his 43rd birthday, Alonso was no less quick and committed than ever. His form dipped somewhat when the team
Pierre Gasly was one of the most consistently impressive drivers over the final races of last year. That said, his outgoing team mate beat him to Alpine’s best result of the season. Alpine began the year with the slowest car on the grid but gradually recovered to join the midfielders scrapping for the lower half
In 2024, Nico Hulkenberg was the solid midfield grafter whose regular points-scoring for Haas helped move the team up three places in the constructors’ championship compared to the year before. His reward was a call-up from Audi to join what will be their works team next year. Haas began the year in the lower half
Lewis Hamilton heads to Ferrari on the back of his most uneven season in Formula 1 to date. His 2024 campaign provided grist to the mill for those who insist his championship-contending days are over, but there were also times he looked like the Hamilton of old, no more so than when he finally ended
Esteban Ocon ended the season with 23 points, almost all of which came from one stunning result in the Brazilian Grand Prix, where he finished second. Four 10th-place finishes on track (one of which subsequently became ninth) were his only other points scores. He collected little more than half as many points as his team
It’s hard not to feel some sympathy for Yuki Tsunoda as he embarks on his fifth season at Red Bull’s second team knowing he has missed his best chance yet to join the leading squad. That was despite the 24-year-old delivering the most consistently convincing performance of his career to date in 2024, with a
