It’s lights out and away we go with a recap of the 2024 Formula 1 (F1) season! With chaos unveiled at every corner of every race around the globe, the 2024 F1 season was an unforgettable one that left every F1 fan on their toes every Grand Prix (GP) weekend.
Every race weekend consists of practice, qualifying, and the actual race. There are two types of race weekends: a normal weekend, and one with a sprint race.
On a normal weekend, the process is elongated.
On Friday, the teams have two free practice sessions (FP1 and FP2), each lasting one hour. During these sessions, they can gather data about how the car performs on that track and in the weather. Although fans often overlook these sessions, they are crucial for the teams.
Saturday morning consists of the final hour of practice: FP3. This is the last opportunity to make major adjustments to the car before they enter something called ‘parc-fermé,’ where there are much stricter restrictions on what they can do to the cars before qualifying. Then, on Saturday afternoon, the drivers qualify for the race. Qualifying is broken into three sessions. Q1 is 18 minutes where all 20 drivers try to set their fastest lap and the slowest five drivers are out. Then there is Q2, where the remaining 15 drivers drive for 15 minutes to improve their times. The last five drivers are cut. Finally, there is Q3, where the last 10 drivers have 12 minutes to decrease their times and get pole position. The fastest time ultimately gets pole for the race on Sunday.
Then on Sunday, the drivers battle it out in a race that usually lasts about two hours, depending on the track and events happening during the race. The top ten drivers get points that add to their personal points, helping them try to win the driver’s championship, and to their team, helping them try to win the constructor’s championship. The winner gets 25 points, second place gets 18 points, and third place gets 12 points. The driver with the fastest lap of the race also gets one point.
On a sprint race weekend, things are more compact since there are essentially two races that weekend.
There is only one practice on Friday. Instead of the other practice sessions, there is the qualifying for the sprint race. Sprint qualifying 1 (SQ1) is 12 minutes and the bottom 5 drivers are eliminated. Next, SQ2 is 10 minutes, with the last five eliminated. Finally, SQ3 is 8 minutes and dictates the starting grid for the sprint race. On Saturday, the sprint race takes place, lasting 100 kilometers or around 30 minutes. Points are given to the top eight drivers: first place gets eight points, second place gets seven, etc.
Now, let’s move on to the actual events of the season!
Breaking News Moments:
Starting off strong, with seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton. It was announced at the start of this season that he would be moving from Mercedes to Ferrari for the 2025 season. Although rumors about this transfer had been circulating for months before, when the news broke out, everyone was shaken.
Hamilton’s time with Mercedes had been a historic one that changed the sport forever. After winning six driver’s championships and eight constructor’s championships, his story with the team came to a close, turning the page for him, the Mercedes family, and F1.
Later in the year, it was announced that Italian Formula 2 (F2) driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli would be taking his place alongside British driver George Russell. This decision, although not completely shocking, sparked different reactions from the F1 fans.
Up next, with another transfer was Haas driver Nico Hulkenburg announcing his commitment to join Kick Sauber in 2025, a year before the team is set to change into the Audi F1 team. Additionally, with Kevin Magnussen, Haas’s other driver, leaving the team as well, there would be two driver spots open.
The first spot will be taken by French driver Esteban Ocon, who signed a contract with the team, leaving Alpine, the French team that had a French line-up consisting of Ocon and Pierre Gasly, who is set to remain with the team.
In the middle of the season, the second spot was offered to, and accepted by newcomer and F2 driver Oliver Bearman, who participated in his first F1 GP at the start of the 2024 season with Ferrari in Saudi Arabia. He placed seventh, almost out-qualifying Hamilton. This debut impressed many in the F1 community and fanbase.
The Alpine line-up for 2025 was complete when the F1 Instagram account announced that rookie Jack Doohan is set to take Ocon’s spot, having replaced him for the last GP of the season in Abu Dhabi.
However, the Alpine team continued to expand when they signed F2 driver and rookie Paul Aron and Argentinian driver Franco Colapinto, who had been racing for the Williams F1 team for half of the 2024 season thus far, as reserve drivers.
Moving on, the Williams team was also not short of complex changes as they dropped Logan Sargeant, one of their drivers, mid-season due to his underperformance compared to his teammate Alex Albon. This is when Colapinto made his F1 debut as a Williams driver having impressed and out-performed his successor by finishing in the top 10 and scoring points only on his second-ever race.
Another big moment was the announcement that beloved driver Daniel Ricciardo would not finish the season with RB Honda RBPT, Red Bull’s sister team. Although it was unbeknownst to him at the time, his last race was the Singapore Grand Prix. This event was highly controversial as many fans felt he should have been given a proper send-off, or finished his career at the Austin Grand Prix that he adored.
With Daniel Riccardo gone, Liam Lawson, who had raced for the team before, was brought in to race for the rest of the season.
Another team that will have new drivers next year is Kick Sauber. It was announced on the F1 Instagram that both Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu would be leaving the team at the end of the season. While both of the drivers do not have spots on the grid for the next season, they will both be reserve drivers. Zhou will be a reserve driver for Ferrari while Bottas will be one for Mercedes, a heartwarming fact for many fans as he returns to a team he spent much time with.
Kick Sauber will have a young driver joining their lineup: Gabriel Bortoleto. The 2024 F2 champion has signed a multiyear contract with the team.
Despite Sergio Perez extending his contract with Red Bull mid-season, after its conclusion, it was announced that he would part ways with Red Bull for the 2025 season. After this announcement, there was much speculation about whether Yuki Tsunoda or Liam Lawson would drive with Red Bull.
Eventually, it was announced that Yuki Tsunoda would remain with RB Honda, and Liam Lawson would be moved up to Red Bull. The second RB Honda seat was given to newcomer Isaak Hadjar, who was part of Red Bull’s junior team.
This decision was also contentious because of Red Bull’s dismissal of Tsunoda, who had been with the Red Bull family in F1 since 2021 and still hadn’t gotten the opportunity to drive for a more competitive team.
Significant Moments Throughout the Season:
Although the breaking news moments were no short of hectic and exciting, there were many prolonged moments throughout the season that kept the F1 fans thrilled.
Firstly, the discussions on the Audi F1 team set to join the sport in 2026 involve their goal to make F1 more environmentally friendly. This change may start a new era of sustainability, innovation and technological advancement in the sport.
Nevertheless, the Audi announcement was not the only change to the teams on the 2026 F1 grid.. For the first time in around a decade, in 2026, F1 will introduce an 11th team under the name GM-Cadillac. This entails having 22 instead of only 20 drivers competing each race weekend, which encourages a higher degree of competition.
On a different note, throughout the season, the drivers, teams and F1 fans watching on their screens or in person would usually expect to see cameramen filming scenes for the annual season of Formula 1: Drive to Survive, Netflix’s F1 documentary. However, in addition to that, a new F1 movie, set to release this summer, has been in the works.
Starring Brad Pitt and Damson Idris with Hamilton as executive producer, the movie revolves around the two actors’ characters driving together for team APXGP. Scenes were filmed at the racetracks during GP weekends this and last season alongside the real F1 cars.
Finally, one of the most notorious parts of the season was all the fights and rivalries. Although there were many unforgettable ones, the championship-determining ones are always essential to the season’s outcome.
To start off, just as any F1 season would go, there will always be at least two teams fighting for the Constructors Championship (won by the team that gathers the most points). For the 2024 season, this was the case with McLaren and Ferrari. Although the two teams are considered some of the best in history, neither had won this title in a while.
With different track styles benefitting the advantages of different cars, the McLaren car was considered to be the fastest of the season, on average, having performed exceptionally in the middle of the season, when Ferrari struggled with their performance. Despite Ferrari’s strength at the start and end of the season, it was McLaren that ultimately took the title of 2024 Constructors’ Champion for the first time since 1998.
For the McLaren fans, this result was a major step up from the team’s shaky 2023 season. It had a disappointing first half, but was able to turn it around for a more successful second half, where the drivers found themselves on the podium in almost every race.
Additionally, fierce competition between at least the two top drivers of the season for the crown of Driver World Champion (won by the driver that gathers the most points) is common. This year, this rivalry consisted of current and four-time world champion Red Bull driver Max Verstappen and McLaren GP-winner Lando Norris.
Although Norris had a rough start to the season while Verstappen dominated right off the bat, Norris’ recovery paired with his fast car established him as a championship contender and gave Verstappen a challenge.
The fight between the two was initiated at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in Italy as Norris was catching up with Verstappen until the very end, ultimately allowing the latter to win by less than a second. Yet, some of the race weekends were more intense than others, such as the Dutch Grand Prix, in which Norris won at Verstappen’s home race, and the U.S. Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, where Norris received a controversial penalty for overtaking Verstappen off the track towards the end of the race giving Verstappen the point advantage.
Best Races of the Season (Our Opinion):
Miami (U.S.) Grand Prix:
Miami was a fun and entertaining race, but especially for McLaren fans. Norris secured his first-ever race win at this race, marking it a fan-favorite for many viewers. Even many drivers were excited for Norris.
Norris started the race in sixth place, but a crash between Sargeant and Magnussen on the 28th lap resulted in a safety car. Norris used this opportunity for a pit-stop, putting him in first place, in front of Verstappen.
Norris was able to keep the lead for the rest of the race, even creating a 7.6-second gap between him and Verstappen. Many viewed this as a great drive and a huge win for Norris and McLaren.
Monaco Grand Prix and Monza (Italian) Grand Prix:
This year, Leclerc was able to break his Monaco “curse” of not winning his home race. This was his first home race win after years of misfortune at his home track. Even being chased down by the two McLaren drivers, he was able to still win.
This year, he was also able to win Monza, which is often seen as the home race for Ferrari. Winning both of these races was momentous and something many fans wanted to see Leclerc achieve.
Canadian Grand Prix:
The weather made this race very interesting – rain before the race meant that the track was slick, making it very chaotic for the drivers. Throughout the race, Russell, Verstappen and Norris were all in the lead at some point.
With the drying of the track, the change of conditions made the strategy of when to switch tires very important. This difference in strategy made it a very attention-grabbing race. In the end, Verstappen was able to win the race.
Silverstone (United Kingdom) Grand Prix:
This race marked Lewis Hamilton’s return to the podium’s top step since 2021. Hamilton was able to win his home race and fend off Verstappen, especially in the latter half of the race.
This marked Hamilton’s ninth home race win – more than any other driver at a single circuit in F1 history. This race showed to the world that Hamilton could still win races – and records – fighting the narrative that he was past his prime in the sport.
Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium) Grand Prix:
This race was intense itself, but the aftermath makes it one to remember this season. After a tough battle and risky tire strategy, George Russell was able to win the race. However, the stewards investigated his car and found that it was 1.5 kilograms underweight when the fuel was drained from it.
This resulted in Russell being disqualified from the race and the win going to Lewis Hamilton – an emotional moment for Russell.
São Paulo (Brazil) Grand Prix:
Max Verstappen won a very important race for the drivers’ championship fight. Starting from 17th, he worked his way all the way to a dazzling first-place finish. This gave Verstappen a 62-point lead over Lando Norris, helping Verstappen get closer to his win.
But it was not only Verstappen that made this race interesting, but also the Alpine drivers. They were able to get a double podium: Esteban Ocon finished second, while Pierre Gasly finished third. This was a big surprise for many fans after their struggle at the start of the season, making this race a fan favorite.
With all the craziness that this F1 season brought, it is unsure how the next season will unfold. Yet, what is certain is that several questions are waiting to be answered.
By Selena Said and Cate Taylor
