BEHIND THE HEADLINES – 2024 Mid-Season Review
2024 has been one of the most competitive seasons we have seen for a while almost reminiscent of 2012, from the first thirteen races we have had six different winners from four teams. There were moments following those early flyways where I feared following Max Verstappen’s win in China, but since then he has won three of the following eight races.
I remember thinking after that race we would see the momentum behind Verstappen and feared that this season would be a coronation rather than a championship, but it hasn’t turned into that as we see Red Bull is not as dominant and is under pressure. In recent races we have seen techy messages between Verstappen and Red Bull, they are still I think the favourites to win the championship as history suggests a strong bounce back.
Though I still have the feeling that Verstappen can still be champion given the way he banked so many points in those early races could be key, but as I’ve explored throughout this edition the season has been unpredictable and it is not going to be a straight forwards ride to his fourth championship.
However, that’s not the story we expected to be telling following the dominance we saw from Red Bull who won four of the first six races and appeared to be stronger than it has turned out to be. It appears that these regulations are beginning to work after two and a half years since these regulations were introduced, it perhaps was going to take time to create the closer racing and we are at that point where it could close up but that appeared unlikely following China.
Red Bull has admitted they expected their 2024 car to be stronger in high-speed corners, with technical director Pierre Wache says the team’s RB20 “didn’t deliver what we expected” in every area. Red Bull won all but one race in 2023, and rather than rest on its laurels made significant changes for this year’s RB20 to ensure it would remain out front in F1.
In the two months before the summer break, we had mainly high-speed circuits and that suggests a possible reason why we have been surprised by the dominance slipping away, but we always hoped these regulations would lead to the field closing up. But I think with the regulation change in just under eighteen months will we see another team steal a march?
The first part of this season has so many highlights, Lando Norris’s first win in Miami, Charles Leclerc FINALLY winning his home Grand Prix and Lewis Hamilton’s emotional record-breaking ninth win at Silverstone, making him the first driver to win a race and his home Grand Prix nine times. Also, in Melbourne that come back for Carlos Sainz following his appendicitis in Jeddah, so many moments.
However, I feel if there is going to be a championship rival to Red Bull and Verstappen one consistent challenger needs to emerge and Sergio Perez needs to up his game to support his teammate. I think based on what I’ve seen Norris is the best to do that, Budapest taught me two things he has that little bit of big-headedness I think you need to fight for championships while seeming to be a nice guy out of the car.
The fight between McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes has been really exciting and the fact towards the latter part they challenged and beat Red Bull throughout July think is encouraging but I think it’s unclear how this is going to play out. It’s hard to see if one rival is going to emerge to challenge the Dutchman for the title but the gap is narrowing, in my view, McLaren looks to be most likely but the only way they can do that is by (sadly) team orders.
I think McLaren needs to get behind Norris, but the repercussions of his refusal to give Piastri the win in Budapest could have been a bit alienating as the team said other themselves during the race, ‘The way to win a championship is with the team.’ That is especially true if we see Red Bull, or another team dominate the second half of the season.
Nothing is impossible, remember how Kimi Raikkonen was twenty points down (under the old points system), with McLaren looking the strongest at the summer break in 2007. Before a brilliant second half which saw him beat Lewis Hamilton by a point to the title, and not reopening the scandalous 2021 Abu Dhabi where he was tied with Verstappen on points.
I often talk about momentum, we saw that when Verstappen came back following the summer break in recent weeks, I felt it’s different as we have four races after this break and after the autumn break which replaced the Easter/spring break with five races, I think it’s going to be key to come off those breaks strongly. Verstappen, Hamilton, and Michael Schumacher naming a few, if Norris gets that momentum don’t rule him out, but he needs to win and be winning, scoring points and that’s key it’s not always about winning it about consistency being at the top end, rather than winning races.
I always thought McLaren had one of the best younger driver pairings, they are now gaining that experience of regularly being able to fight for victories and we have seen a few growing pains. It is great to see after the years in the midfield to join the front runners, remember this has been done during the transition to a new wind tunnel.
Oscar Piastri has told Sky Sports that the team is going to prioritise the constructors rather than helping Lando Norris in his bid to catch Max Verstappen in the Drivers’ Championship. McLaren is forty-two points behind Red Bull in the constructors but has had a stronger car at most events in the last three months since Norris won his maiden F1 race at the Miami Grand Prix in early May.
I think that’s a reminder of the contradiction you have in motorsport as David Croft once said ‘The glory is in the drivers championship, but without the team you can’t win the championship and the money is paid on the constructors.’ McLaren are open as suggested during the radio messages in Budapest to using team orders, but they need to do it in a way they don’t create future problems for themselves.
Mercedes have turned it around at the start of the season, I was feeling as if they would stand still this season, but the upgrades have brought them back into play and in my view overtaken Ferrari in terms of performance. I didn’t doubt they had the ability to turn it around, but given the strength of Red Bull at the start of the season and them being on paper the fourth-fastest team.
Meanwhile, I think Ferrari have fallen back again following their strong start to the season, although I don’t think that is wholly down to the pattern we have seen before where they slip back after the strong start. Though they are I think still in the mix but they are playing catch up once again, they need to resolve why they are always slipping back.
But as it closed up and in the last month winning three out of four races shows how they have retained this strength to be a leading team once again, which I didn’t expect at the start of the season. Hamilton’s ninth win at Silverstone as Alex Jacques said in commentary ‘wasn’t a comeback’, but to me a momentous day in Grand Prix history, I think it’s proved how good a driver he is.
It is rare to see Hamilton get emotional, the last time I remember seeing him emotional was in Istanbul 2020 when he won his seventh title, I think Mercedes and Hamilton have been keen to end the decades-long partnership in the best possible way. If the unpredictable nature continues in the second half of the season.
But if we see the unpredictability continue, this championship both in the drivers and constructors go down to those final races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi. I think the championship is not going be an unpredictable ride through the remainder of this season. Mercedes and Ferrari could also have a key role in this championship for McLaren, by taking points away from Red Bull.
One of the standout moments for me was Ollie Bearman standing in for Sainz in Jeddah, though his F2 season has not lived up to what we saw in that race, but it put him on the map and has earned him a seat with Haas for 2025. Bearman had no pressure that weekend, but there is always pressure, I think he earned that seat, but he needs to up his performances with five weekends remaining in the F2 season.
The European season has reminded me given the unpredictability of the racing why I love this sport when we have great racing, I try to be unbiased but watching and commentating on races there are moments where you become human. I think that you need to have that passion to report to engage the reader, I have enjoyed going into qualifying and races where we have not been fully sure who is the favourite.
I feel that this season could be a modern classic given in a similar way to 2010 or 2012, when we last had a multi-team fight for the championship, and that was when Red Bull won their first championship. It would be for both Ferrari and McLaren, if they were to win either championship their longest waits in the sport’s history. Showing they have or beginning to overcome their problems which have sometimes cost them, as they readapt to fighting back at the front of the field.
But I fear as we enter the build-up to the next regulation change in just eighteen months’ time whether we see again one team steel a march again, I think that will be the real test of the financial regulations as they develop the next generation of cars building on the core aims of the sport to create closer racing. Despite this we need to hope we don’t see a team or engine manufacturer make a huge step over the coming eighteen months.