The 2024 Method 1 season became probably the most aggressive contests the championship has produced in years – nevertheless it didn’t begin that means.
Over the opening races it appeared Purple Bull and Max Verstappen have been going to select 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 at first of a championship.
As Verstappen’s prodigious successful fee over the earlier seasons continued into the beginning of this 12 months, it briefly propelled his profession successful 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 grew to become a grand prix driver when the 12 months started.
On the second spherical of the 12 months Purple Bull equalled Williams’ tally of 114 victories. Within the 20-year spell since Purple Bull entered F1, Williams have solely taken a single win. Purple Bull quickly handed them to change into the fourth most profitable F1 group of all time when it comes to wins.
However then all of it modified. Verstappen’s successful fee tailed off after Imola, then following his Spanish Grand Prix victory he went 10 races with out successful – his longest win-less run since 2020. At the USA Grand Prix, his successful fee dipped again under 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. Nevertheless Verstappen moved again forward earlier than the top of the season.
As Purple 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 grew to become 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 dwelling race. It was the primary time the Monaco Grand Prix had been received by a house driver for the reason that world championship started. The tiny principality on the French riviera due to this fact grew to become 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 actually not one for the ages. A primary-lap crimson flag allowed the sector to finish their necessary tyre modifications with out pitting, and the rivals circulated dully thereafter, ticking off the laps as Leclerc managed his tempo in the primary grand prix ever to characteristic no place modifications among the many high 10.
McLaren additionally began successful, which actually got here as a aid to Lando Norris. Heading to the Miami Grand Prix he had elevated the document for many podiums with no victory to fifteen. By successful 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 may 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 3 decimal locations.
Verstappen knew a championship menace coming when he noticed one and gave Norris a tough time after they fought for victory within the Austrian Grand Prix, finally inflicting a collision. That opened the door for a fourth totally different group to win, George Russell taking victory for Mercedes. By the top of the 12 months these 4 groups had received not less than 4 races every, setting a brand new document.
Regardless of retiring his broken McLaren in Austria, Norris was nonetheless labeled, 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 wherein each driver was labeled – 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 successful a race, however his British Grand Prix victory got here after 56 begins. After all, 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 with no victory in April. As of the season’s finish, Hulkenberg has elevated that document from 208 begins to 227, and has moved to the group 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 grew to become solely the sixth driver within the historical past of the world championship to be disqualified after successful.
Two drivers claimed their first wins in 2024. The second was Oscar Piastri in Hungary, which made his McLaren group the primary since Williams in 2001 to see each their drivers take their maiden victories in the identical season.
In consequence, 13 totally different grand prix winners lined up on the grid on the Belgian Grand Prix, probably the most for the reason that 1980 Canadian Grand Prix, although that was on a bigger, 24-car grid.
Two of these winners disappeared earlier than the top 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. Nevertheless Daniel Ricciardo reached the top of the road on the Singapore Grand Prix, the place he grew to become the fifth driver in F1 historical past to set the quickest lap of their closing 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 grew to become the fourth consecutive American driver to race in F1 however lose their seat earlier than the top of the 12 months, following Alexander Rossi, Scott Velocity and Michael Andretti, over a interval overlaying greater than three a long time.
Extra of Verstappen’s rivals took benefit of their possibilities to select up wins within the second half of the season. When Russell lastly received his second win of 2024 in Las Vegas, seven totally different drivers had change into 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.
Nevertheless, for under the twelfth time in F1 historical past, the constructors’ championship was received by a group 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 have been born. Ferrari at the moment are within the longest title-less drought of their F1 historical past, having not received the constructors’ crown since 2008 when, mockingly, the drivers’ title went to McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton.
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