The 2024 Formulation 1 season was probably the most aggressive contests the championship has produced in years – nevertheless it didn’t begin that approach.
Over the opening races it appeared Crimson Bull and Max Verstappen had been going to choose up the place they left off on the finish of their dominant 2023 marketing campaign. He started the season by equalling Ayrton Senna’s all-time document for many consecutive pole positions, taking eight from the ultimate race of final 12 months to spherical seven at Imola. Senna’s equal document spanned the 1988 and 1989 seasons. Verstappen additionally matched, however didn’t beat, Alain Prost’s 1993 document of taking pole positions in the beginning of a championship.
As Verstappen’s prodigious profitable fee over the earlier seasons continued into the beginning of this 12 months, it briefly propelled his profession profitable fee forward of F1’s most profitable driver of all time – his 2021 championship rival Lewis Hamilton, who was enduring by far the longest dry spell since he turned a grand prix driver when the 12 months started.
On the second spherical of the 12 months Crimson Bull equalled Williams’ tally of 114 victories. Within the 20-year spell since Crimson Bull entered F1, Williams have solely taken a single win. Crimson Bull quickly handed them to grow to be the fourth most profitable F1 workforce of all time by way of wins.
However then all of it modified. Verstappen’s profitable fee tailed off after Imola, then following his Spanish Grand Prix victory he went 10 races with out profitable – his longest win-less run since 2020. At the USA Grand Prix, his profitable fee dipped again beneath Hamilton’s, regardless of the Mercedes driver spinning out of an F1 race for the second time in his 300-plus grand prix profession that weekend. Nonetheless Verstappen moved again forward earlier than the tip of the season.
As Crimson Bull’s rivals closed the hole it created alternatives for others to win. In Australia, the place Verstappen suffered his solely retirement of the 12 months attributable to a technical failure, Carlos Sainz Jnr took victory for Ferrari. He missed the earlier race when he had emergency appendix surgical procedure, and he turned the primary driver to win after lacking a race since Gerhard Berger in 1997.
Ferrari’s subsequent win got here in Monaco courtesy of a delighted Charles Leclerc, who ended his luckless run in his house race. It was the primary time the Monaco Grand Prix had been received by a house driver because the world championship started. The tiny principality on the French riviera subsequently turned the thirteenth nation to have a house winner in F1.
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The Monaco Grand Prix has been a processional affair and this 12 months’s was definitely not one for the ages. A primary-lap crimson flag allowed the sphere to finish their necessary tyre adjustments with out pitting, and the opponents circulated dully thereafter, ticking off the laps as Leclerc managed his tempo within the first grand prix ever to characteristic no place adjustments among the many prime 10.
McLaren additionally began profitable, which definitely got here as a aid to Lando Norris. Heading to the Miami Grand Prix he had elevated the document for many podiums and not using a victory to fifteen. By profitable in Miami he returned that document to a no-doubt-less-than-thrilled Nick Heidfeld, who made 13 podium appearances however by no means stood on the highest step.
Norris tied with Verstappen for many pole positions over the season, every taking eight. However Verstappen might have had three extra very simply: He misplaced poles attributable to penalties at Spa (engine change) and Losail (impeding) and set the identical time as Canadian Grand Prix pole-winner George Russell, solely lacking the highest spot as a result of he did it after the Mercedes driver. This was the sixteenth event when two F1 drivers have shared the pole-winning time in qualifying, however solely the second occasion within the final 50 seasons because of the introduction of timing to a few decimal locations.
Verstappen knew a championship menace coming when he noticed one and gave Norris a tough time once they fought for victory within the Austrian Grand Prix, ultimately inflicting a collision. That opened the door for a fourth completely different workforce to win, George Russell taking victory for Mercedes. By the tip of the 12 months these 4 groups had received no less than 4 races every, setting a brand new document.
Regardless of retiring his broken McLaren in Austria, Norris was nonetheless categorised, together with each different driver, for the second race in a row. That occured twice throughout 2024 – the Bahrain Grand Prix additionally accomplished back-to-back occasions during which each driver was categorised – a feat by no means seen earlier than this 12 months.
Lastly, at Silverstone, Hamilton claimed his first win since late in 2021. He had beforehand by no means gone 10 rounds with out profitable a race, however his British Grand Prix victory got here after 56 begins. In fact, many different drivers need to go their complete careers with out wins, notably Nico Hulkenberg, who broke Andrea de Cesaris’ 30-year-old document for many begins and not using a victory in April. As of the season’s finish, Hulkenberg has elevated that document from 208 begins to 227, and has moved to the workforce which ended this 12 months in final place, so his prospects of ending the run don’t look good.
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Hamilton added a second win later within the 12 months, at Spa, although Russell received ‘on the highway’. He turned solely the sixth driver within the historical past of the world championship to be disqualified after profitable.
Two drivers claimed their first wins in 2024. The second was Oscar Piastri in Hungary, which made his McLaren workforce the primary since Williams in 2001 to see each their drivers take their maiden victories in the identical season.
Consequently, 13 completely different grand prix winners lined up on the grid on the Belgian Grand Prix, probably the most because the 1980 Canadian Grand Prix, although that was on a bigger, 24-car grid.
Two of these winners disappeared earlier than the tip of the season. Alpine benched their solely grand prix winner, Esteban Ocon, with one race to go, although he’ll return with Haas subsequent 12 months. Nonetheless Daniel Ricciardo reached the tip of the road on the Singapore Grand Prix, the place he turned the fifth driver in F1 historical past to set the quickest lap of their ultimate race – although that element was solely confirmed 4 days after the chequered flag fell.
One other driver who misplaced their seat mid-season was Logan Sargeant. He turned the fourth consecutive American driver to race in F1 however lose their seat earlier than the tip of the 12 months, following Alexander Rossi, Scott Velocity and Michael Andretti, over a interval masking greater than three many years.
Extra of Verstappen’s rivals took benefit of their possibilities to choose up wins within the second half of the season. When Russell lastly acquired his second win of 2024 in Las Vegas, seven completely different drivers had grow to be a number of winners, breaking the document of six set in 1981.
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The distribution of wins between different drivers helped Verstappen clinch the title, aided by his victory from seventeenth on the grid (with two empty slots forward of him), the bottom beginning place a race had been received from since Kimi Raikkonen within the 2005 Japanese Grand Prix. No driver who has received three championships in a row has ever failed so as to add a fourth, and Verstappen sustained that precedent set by Juan Manuel Fangio, Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel and Hamilton.
Nonetheless, for less than the twelfth time in F1 historical past, the constructors’ championship was received by a workforce which didn’t characteristic the title-winning driver. McLaren clinched the title with their sixth win of the 12 months – the fewest victories achieved by the championship winners in 25 years.
set a brand new document for the longest hole between consecutive constructors’ title wins with their first for 26 years – their final win in 1998 got here earlier than both of their present drivers had been born. Ferrari are actually within the longest title-less drought of their F1 historical past, having not received the constructors’ crown since 2008 when, paradoxically, the drivers’ title went to McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton.
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