Formula 1: The 2024 Formula 1 year in review after the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
The chequered flag has waved on the 2024 Formula 1 season after the year-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. From feuds and off-track scandals to emotional farewells and bombshell moves, we look back on the F1 year that was.
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The wild and fast world of Formula One delivered another year of twists and turns.
There were bombshell defections, scandals and shock farewells. But yet again it ended with Max on top. We look back on the 2024 Formula 1 season that was.
THE CHAMPION
Red Bull ace Max Verstappen secured his place “amongst the all-time greats” in Formula 1 after securing a fourth straight world drivers’ championship.
In a campaign his team principal Christian Horner described as the Dutchman’s “best and hardest” Verstappen sealed his 2024 crown with his P5 finish in Las Vegas with two race weekends to spare.
Verstappen made a dominant start to the season when he won seven of the first 10 races and – aside from one mechanical-forced retirement at the Australian Grand Prix – had not finished outside of the top six in any race leading into the season finale in Abu Dhabi.
The 27-year-old’s consistency and ability to still deliver a bag of points even on the team’s down days staved off the challenge from his closest rival – McLaren’s Lando Norris.
Horner hailed Verstappen’s fourth championship as arguably his best and said it had propelled him into elite company among the sport’s greats.
“It’s been a rollercoaster of a year and Max has been truly outstanding,” Horner told Sky Sports F1.
“We got off to a flying start, we had a very difficult summer, but he just kept nailing the results.
“I think this has been his best and hardest championship and he’s shown maturity, he’s delivered on the days when the car wasn’t quite there and there’s no one more deserving of this championship than Max.
“He has an insane amount of natural talent and ability, he has more hunger than I’ve ever seen in any driver. The dedication, the application, the self-belief, that combination has created one of the most phenomenal drivers that I’ve ever seen.
“When we (won four titles), the first time with Seb (Vettel), I thought we’d never repeat that …. then to be standing here with Max on four in a row as well and joining a very elite group of champions now. It puts him amongst the all-time greats.”
THE FEUD
While Verstappen was celebrating a fourth world championship at the end of the year, there have been plenty of run-ins – on track and off – for the Dutch star along the way.
The latest has been his spat with Mercedes star George Russell, who accused Verstappen of blocking him dangerously during qualifying at the Qatar Grand Prix, which resulted in a stewards’ investigation and the Red Bull ace losing pole position to Russell.
Verstappen lashed out at Russell after losing pole, saying he had “lost all respect” for the British driver.
“You know what it is? He acts decent in front of the camera here, but when you talk to him personally, he is a different person,” Verstappen said in a Dutch TV interview.
But Russell stood firm, telling the media ahead of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix that Verstappen was a “bully” who had threatened to deliberately crash into him.
“I find it all quite ironic seeing as Saturday night he said he was going to purposefully go out of his way to crash into me and ‘put me on my f***ing head in the wall,” Russell said.
“So to question somebody’s integrity as a person, while saying comments like that the day before, I find is very ironic, and I’m not going to sit here and accept it.
“People have been bullied by Max for years now, and you can’t question his driving abilities. But he cannot deal with adversity.
“Whenever anything has gone against him … he lashes out.
“For me, those comments on Saturday night (in Qatar) and Sunday were totally disrespectful and unnecessary.
“Because what happens on track, we fight hard, that’s part of racing. What happens in the stewards’ room, you fight hard, but it’s never personal. But he’s taken it too far now.”
The feud between the two drivers has spilt over to their team bosses Horner and Toto Wolff, who have also traded barbs defending their drivers.
Mercedes boss Wolff described Horner as a “yapping little terrier” in response to the Red Bull team principal’s comments about Russell being “hysterical”.
THE SCANDAL
The drivers’ world championship was delivered, but an off-track scandal initially threatened to overshadow the start of the 2024 campaign for Red Bull.
Red Bull team principal was engulfed in a sexting scandal, facing allegations of workplace misconduct towards a female employee.
Red Bull’s parent company launched an independent investigation into the accusations against Horner, who denied all allegations of inappropriate conduct made against him.
But Horner, who is married to former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell, was cleared of any wrongdoing after the investigation.
Hundreds of WhatsApp exchanges were reportedly leaked to many influential figures in Formula 1 shortly after he was cleared of workplace misconduct.
“I won’t comment on anonymous speculation, but to reiterate, I have always denied the allegations,” Horner said in a statement at the time.
“I respect the integrity of the independent investigation and fully co-operated with it every step of the way.
“It was a thorough and fair investigation conducted by an independent specialist barrister and it has concluded, dismissing the complaint made. I remain fully focused on the start of the season.”
Horner has been the Red Bull Racing team principal since 2005.
THE SWEAR JAR
Verstappen staged his own off-track protest at the Singapore Grand Prix for his “ridiculous” punishment for swearing by the FIA.
The Red Bull star was ordered to “accomplish some work of public interest” by the sport’s governing body after using “course, rude” language to describe the performance of his car.
Verstappen staged his own protest in the drivers’ press conference following qualifying, only providing abbreviated answers or “no comment” to questions, but later explained his stance to reporters in the F1 paddock outside.
“I find it of course ridiculous what happened, so why should I then give full answers,” Verstappen said.
“Because it’s very easily apparent you get a fine or some kind of penalty. So I prefer not to speak a lot, save my voice.”
Fellow drivers backed Verstappen with Lewis Hamilton describing his penalty as “a bit of a joke” and said the Dutchman should refuse to complete the punishment the FIA demanded, while Lando Norris said it was “pretty unfair”.
Verstappen’s punishment came after comments from FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix this week when he said there had been too much swearing from drivers broadcast over the team radio.
THE BOMBSHELL
Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton rocked the F1 world in February when it was announced he would be leaving his long-time home at Mercedes to make the switch to Ferrari in 2025.
Hamilton has raced for the Silver Arrows since 2013 and has won six of his seven world drivers’ championships with Mercedes after his first at McLaren in 2008.
Many expected Hamilton would likely see out his career with Mercedes, especially after he had signed a two-year contract extension in mid-2023 through to the end of 2025.
However, an exit clause – granting both the team and driver flexibility for change – opened the door for Hamilton’s shock move on a multi-year deal.
The 39-year-old, who claimed the last of his world title wins in 2020, will team with Charles Leclerc at the Scuderia in 2025.
While he said it had been one of the hardest decisions of his career, Hamilton
“I feel incredibly fortunate, after achieving things with Mercedes that I could only have dreamed of as a kid, that I now have the chance to fulfil another childhood dream. Driving in Ferrari red,” Hamilton said.
“Mercedes has been a huge part of my life since I was 13 years old, so this decision has been the hardest I’ve ever had to make.
“But the time is right to make a change and take on a new challenge.”
Hamilton will make his debut in Ferrari red at the season-opening Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park.
THE AUSSIES
It was a year of contrasting fortunes for Australia’s two drivers on the Formula 1 grid.
As McLaren young gun Oscar Piastri’s star continued to rise, the ever-popular Daniel Ricciardo’s career faltered.
Ricciardo was given the opportunity to try and revive his Formula 1 career at Red Bull sister team RB in 2024 alongside Yuki Tsunoda after earning a mid-season call-up last year to replace axed Dutchman Nyck de Vries.
Coveting a return to a competitive team on the F1 grid, the eight-time grand prix winner had been hoping to use his RB drive for a potential springboard to a “fairytale” Red Bull return.
But the affable Australian was not able to do enough to prove he should oust Sergio Perez from his Red Bull seat, nor hang onto his drive alongside Tsunoda at RB.
Ricciardo scored his first points of the season when he finished fourth in the Miami sprint race, but the 35-year-old was only able to finish in the points in three other races before he was ejected from his seat after the Singapore Grand Prix.
In contrast, Melbourne-born Piastri finished in the top-four of the drivers’ championship to enhance his credentials as a future world title challenger.
Piastri became just the fifth Australian to win a Formula 1 grand prix when he claimed his maiden GP win in Hungary.
The 23-year-old added another victory at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and claimed eight podiums for the year leading into the season-ending race in Abu Dhabi.
THE FAREWELLS
Ricciardo headlined the farewells from the F1 grid for 2024, but it was far from the send-off he deserved.
There was wild speculation ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix Ricciardo would be sacked in the break before the Austin Grand Prix with reserve driver Liam Lawson set to get a head start on his permanent move to the RB driver’s seat for 2025.
But the team would only confirm that a review would happen between events, not confirming or denying Ricciardo was about to race for a final time, denying him a proper farewell.
Ricciardo battled through emotional post-race interviews, but the news of the Perth racer’s exit was not confirmed by the team until later in the week after the Singapore race.
Amid backlash for the way the departure was handled, RB later admitted the announcement was not handled in a “good enough manner”.
“Of course we are not happy …. and we don’t think we have done it in a good enough manner,” RB team principal Laurent Mekies told Sky Sports F1.
“There is no argument about that. The reasons behind (how it was handled) would be excuses so I don’t want …. to go into the reasons but what is clear is that we have had many discussions with Daniel and both the team and the driver were aware we were going into that weekend with this impossible situation to deal with.
“We chose rightly, wrongly – probably wrongly – we chose together for many reasons to keep it confidential until the end of the weekend.
“Obviously it meant it went through such a difficult weekend that we quickly realised it was not the thing we would have liked.”
Kick Sauber pair Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu were given the chance for an end-of-year send-off after it was confirmed they would be replaced for 2025.
Honorary Aussie Bottas and Zhou have been teammates for the past three years but both have experienced difficult campaigns with the Finnish driver still pointless ahead of the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi.
Bottas is in talks to return to Mercedes, where he achieved all of his 10 grand prix wins, in a reserve driver role for 2025.
THE MOVES AND NEWCOMERS FOR 2025
Lewis Hamilton’s switch to Ferrari headlines the driver moves for 2025, while Australian son-of-a-gun Jack Doohan will launch his debut F1 season with Alpine.
As Hamilton slots in alongside Charles Leclerc at Ferrari, “smooth operator” Spaniard Carlos Sainz will move to Williams alongside Alex Albon.
Doohan, who made his F1 debut in the season-ending race in Abu Dhabi, replaces Esteban Ocon at Alpine for 2025, while the Frenchman makes the move to Haas.
Kick Sauber will field an all-new driver line-up with German Nico Hulkenberg and Brazilian rookie Gabriel Bortoleto.
Doohan and Bortoleto will join newcomers Andrea Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) and Oliver Bearman (Haas), while Liam Lawson (RB) also in line to contest his first full-time season, although his seat is yet to be confirmed.
DRIVE OF THE YEAR
Verstappen drew plaudits from across the F1 paddock after his stunning win in the wet at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix in Brazil.
In a victory that moved him to the edge of securing a fourth straight drivers’ championship, Verstappen claimed victory from 17th on the grid in the rainswept conditions.
It was a performance that drew praise from Verstappen’s rivals, hailing his skill
“We knew the Red Bull would be good today, but honestly I think today it was more Max that made the difference than the car,” Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc said.
Mercedes rival Lewis Hamilton described it as an “amazing drive” on social media, while Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said it was one of Verstappen’s “very best” wins.
“It was a masterclass and in those conditions the driver’s skill really comes to the fore and he was in a league of his own,” Horner told Sky Sports F1.
ENDS
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Originally published as Formula 1: The 2024 Formula 1 year in review after the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
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