Formula 1’s 2024 season has comprised of 24 Grands Prix plus six Sprint events, and the finale was held in Abu Dhabi today, where McLaren’s Lando Norris drove superbly to claim a lights-to-flag victory and help his team achieve the Constructors’ Championship title.
During the build-up to the Yas Marina round, it was clear that this might be Sergio Pérez’s last race weekend for Red Bull and potentially his final Formula 1 Grand Prix too. Prior to Abu Dhabi, the underperforming Mexican had scored just 152 points this season compared to the 429 achieved by his teammate Max Verstappen, and it was by far the lowest tally of any of the eight drivers in the top four teams. This has been the main reason behind Red Bull dropping to third in the crucial prize money-paying Constructors’ Championship standings, which also impacts negatively on the team’s staff, including all those at its Milton Keynes base, as it meant they would miss out on substantial end-of-season bonuses.
The late great Ayrton Senna famously once said that when you stop going for a gap, you are no longer a racing driver, and such a philosophy unfortunately led to a 10-second penalty for Verstappen...
Such factors simply cannot be ignored on an ongoing basis by a team that still so wants to compete for more titles, and the key question, as the final round neared, was whether Pérez would decide to leave voluntarily and receive a big farewell in Abu Dhabi or wait for his fate to be determined at a meeting of the team’s shareholders tomorrow. Pérez’s response on Friday was to simply remind everyone that he is contracted with Red Bull for 2025 and will still be racing for them next year. He may be, but the current situation may also be more to do with the terms of any large payoff being negotiated.
Recent expensive accidents for Williams' Franco Colapinto have highlighted his relative inexperience and significantly cooled Red Bull's interest in the young Argentinian as a potential replacement for Pérez. The situation is further complicated by Williams' likely eight-figure release fee. This would all leave Colapinto without an F1 drive next year, as Williams has long been committed to running Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon in 2025. So, it seems probable that New Zealand’s Liam Lawson may be promoted internally from RB to the main Red Bull team if Pérez departs. This would then also leave a possibility for 20-year-old Isack Hadjar (an F2 frontrunner prior to the Abu Dhabi final round and a Red Bull reserve driver) to move up to fill Lawson’s seat at RB alongside Yuki Tsunoda.
Elsewhere on the driver front, Esteban Ocon crashed out at the first corner on the opening lap of last weekend’s Grand Prix in Qatar, but the 28-year-old was still due to complete the season with Alpine before saying his goodbyes to everyone within the team and moving on to Haas with effect from the post-Abu Dhabi single-day test. However, just hours after the chequered flag in Losail, Alpine’s senior management announced that a disappointed Ocon would be replaced for this weekend by the 21-year-old Australian, Jack Doohan, who had already been signed to race for the French outfit next year.
One other quick news snippet, which arose only last Wednesday, relates to the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort. The event returned in 2021 after a 36-year absence and has been a great success on the back of massive home support for Verstappen. However, for financial reasons, the race will now only be held for the next two years before dropping off the F1 calendar. While many Grands Prix around the world receive significant government funding, a private company runs the Dutch Grand Prix without any such assistance. This is a shame, but, on the plus side, there is a lengthy list of countries that are very keen to join the F1 circus if given a chance.
Charles Leclerc rose from 19th on the grid to third place on the podium
George Russell and Verstappen have always had a fairly cordial relationship, but an incident during qualifying for last Sunday’s Qatar Grand Prix led to both drivers having to visit the stewards, who then decided to hand the four-time champion’s pole position to the Mercedes driver. An unseemly and ill-tempered private spat between the pair followed, but its content soon spread around the Losail paddock like wildfire. Come Abu Dhabi, Russell was clearly keen to keep the argument going and described Verstappen as a threatening bully who needed to be stood up to, which led to the latter describing the Mercedes driver as a liar, a backstabber, and a loser who was misrepresenting the truth about what had actually been said between them in Qatar.
Just past half distance, Bottas collided very clumsily with the unlucky Magnussen, and the former was forced to limp his damaged car back to the pits and retire.
Verstappen also made it clear that he didn’t want to waste any more time on the subject, regardless of whether Russell did, but both team principals became involved too, as Christian Horner claimed Russell had at times been hysterical during the Qatari weekend, which led Toto Wolff to describe Horner as a yapping little terrier! Horner was quick to reply, though, saying he’d much rather be a terrier than a wolf! Heyho, such banter is normally harmless enough and a bit of fun, although there is history between Horner and Wolff, with the former quipping on Friday, “We have a sort of love-hate relationship where I think Toto loves to hate me!”. We have, of course, witnessed plenty of far worse disagreements between drivers in the past and even within the same team, with Nigel Mansell v. Nelson Piquet at Williams, Ayrton Senna v. Alain Prost at McLaren, and Sir Lewis Hamilton v. Nico Rosberg at Mercedes readily springing to mind as classic examples.
All F1 drivers (and, to a lesser extent, their bosses) are often seen by many fans as role models, and the public use of strong swear words is never to be condoned, but it’s also true that we all want to see these people as characters with feelings and emotions rather than being meek, corporate puppets, simply trotting out the PR answers they are told to repeat. Verstappen invited Russell to sit next to him at the traditional drivers’ end-of-season evening meal on Thursday, but Russell refused to do so, spurning a clear opportunity for their differences to be quickly resolved. On a lighter note, Verstappen and his partner Kelly Piquet announced on Friday morning that they are thrilled to be expecting their first child together.
Hamilton had started the race on hard tyres, but his change to medium rubber on lap 35 was to give him a performance advantage over all those on hards ...
Turning to the on-track action at Yas Marina, which began on Friday afternoon local time, the focus was already on the Constructors’ Championship and whether McLaren or Ferrari would emerge on top come today’s chequered flag. McLaren arrived in Abu Dhabi with a 21-point advantage over Ferrari, but you have to go back to 1998 for the last time the team won the Constructors’ title. For Ferrari it was a decade later when the iconic Italian outfit last did likewise, but the whole outcome today was important due to the lower positions in the final rankings also leading to significantly differing prize money allocations. Numerous rookie drivers took part in the opening free practice session as teams fulfilled their requirement to do so, with Ferrari making history as the Leclerc brothers, Charles and Arthur, occupied their cars. The team was forced to fit a new battery to the power unit of Charles’ car, meaning he would face a 10-place grid penalty for today’s Grand Prix, before the Monégasque driver topped the practice timing screens ahead of Norris and the Mercedes duo of Hamilton and Russell.
However, following Friday’s second practice period, it was Norris and Oscar Piastri who led the way for McLaren, with Haas’ Nico Hülkenberg a surprise third fastest, one place better than Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari. Final practice took place yesterday, and again the McLarens looked really quick, as this time Piastri outpaced Norris ahead of Hamilton and Verstappen. The subsequent qualifying hour to set today’s grid was where it really mattered, though, and it included a few surprises. Firstly, it proved to be a disaster for Hamilton as Mercedes gambled on running its drivers late in the first part of the three-stage process, hoping to benefit from improving track conditions. However, traffic and a loose bollard, which he ran over, contributed to him being eliminated at the first hurdle after setting only the 18th fastest time. Then in Q2 Leclerc had his best lap time deleted for exceeding track limits at the exit of Turn 1, and he was only 14th quickest, with his 10-place grid penalty meaning he would be starting from the back row today. Exactly what Ferrari didn’t want in their fight with McLaren for the Constructors’ title, especially as Norris and Piastri went on to claim the front row on the grid. At least Sainz upheld Ferrari's honour after setting the third fastest time ahead of Hülkenberg, who was absolutely flying in his last F1 weekend for Haas before joining Sauber/Audi. However, the German later received a three-place grid penalty for overtaking at the pit exit.
Will Sergio Pérez still be a Red Bull driver next week?
Today’s Grand Prix was scheduled to be a day-night event, with the formation lap starting at precisely 17.00 local time and the sun due to set 35 minutes later. The late great Ayrton Senna famously once said that when you stop going for a gap, you are no longer a racing driver, and such a philosophy unfortunately led to a 10-second penalty for Verstappen after trying to squeeze up the inside of Piastri at the opening lefthand corner on the first lap, tipping them both into a spin and making McLaren’s race much more stressful than it might otherwise have been. This incident left Norris edging clear ahead of Sainz, Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, and Russell before a short Virtual Safety Car period was triggered by Valtteri Bottas’ Haas car colliding with Pérez, the latter being forced into an early retirement.
Magnussen set the fastest lap of the race but didn’t receive the additional point usually awarded due to being only 16th and not in the top ten.
On the plus side, Leclerc, who had started 19th, picked his way exquisitely through the pack and was already eighth by the second tour before passing Haas’ Kevin Magnussen for seventh five laps later. Meanwhile, Piastri, who was desperate to recover ground after the opening corner clash, had run hard into the rear of Colapinto’s Williams and received his own 10-second penalty for doing so. By lap 13, the charging Leclerc had risen to fifth position behind Norris, Sainz, Gasly, and Russell, and soon some of the frontrunners were making pitstops to switch from medium to hard specification tyres, whilst Norris had extended his lead over Sainz to four seconds. Ferrari pitted the latter on lap 26, and McLaren responded immediately by bringing Norris in too.
When Lawson pitted for RB, the crew failed to properly secure the new front left wheel, and the Kiwi had to stop again, but worse was to follow when the stewards gave him a 10-second penalty for his team’s infringement. Just past half distance, Bottas collided very clumsily with the unlucky Magnussen, and the former was forced to limp his damaged car back to the pits and retire. Hamilton had started the race on hard tyres, but his change to medium rubber on lap 35 was to give him a performance advantage over all those on hards, and, as the laps ticked by, he passed Hülkenberg and Gasly to fifth position, one place behind his teammate Russell.
... it will be fascinating to see how the veteran Hamilton, who will be 40 when he first races for the famous Scuderia next season, performs alongside Leclerc race after race in the same car.
Out front, the top trio of Norris, Sainz, and Leclerc looked comfortable and were on their way to occupying the three steps on the post-Grand Prix podium, but Hamilton was gradually closing the gap to Russell and found a way past on the very last lap, with Verstappen completing the top six finishers. Magnussen set the fastest lap of the race but didn’t receive the additional point usually awarded due to being only 16th and not in the top ten.
In the end Piastri finished 10th and earned a sole point, whereas Norris’ excellent drive to a dominant victory earned 25 points and ensured his team claimed their latest long-awaited Constructors’ Championship success. Rest assured, the post-race celebrations will be lively and will go on for some time.
George Russell wore a special helmet for his last race as Lewis Hamilton’s teammate
Sainz's race today marked his final appearance for Ferrari (unless he makes a comeback in the future), and it also marked the final race for Sauber's Bottas and Zhou Guanyu, as well as Haas' Magnussen, who have all been dropped. It was also, of course, Hamilton’s last one for Mercedes after 12 seasons with the Brackley-based team, having joined them at the start of 2013 after spending his first six years in Formula 1 with McLaren. Last winter the seven-time champion secretly negotiated a very high-value deal with Ferrari to join them at the start of the 2025 season, and this proved to be one of the biggest shocks in the F1 driver market when it became public knowledge, as he’d previously vowed to remain loyal to Mercedes up to and beyond his retirement from racing.
...the 2025 campaign, which will begin with the official pre-season three-day test in Bahrain in late February before the first Grand Prix in Melbourne, Australia, on 16th March.
After a challenging and mainly disappointing 2024 season, Hamilton has finished only seventh in the Drivers’ Championship rankings, behind his current teammate Russell, who has tended to both outqualify and outscore him. As a result, it will be fascinating to see how the veteran Hamilton, who will be 40 when he first races for the famous Scuderia next season, performs alongside Leclerc race after race in the same car.
Looking at the bigger picture, the sun has set in Abu Dhabi and also on another thrilling and highly unpredictable season of F1 racing, which has included so many twists and turns both on and off track. Most involved are now looking forward to escaping on holiday before turning their attention to all the preparations required ahead of the 2025 campaign, which will begin with the official pre-season three-day test in Bahrain in late February before the first Grand Prix in Melbourne, Australia, on 16th March. It’s been another long season, but, like most of my F1 reporting colleagues, I already can’t wait for the new one to arrive. Before then, though, I’d just like to thank all of you who have followed this journey with me throughout 2024 and wish you all a Merry Christmas and a healthy and Happy New Year.
2024 Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
1 Lando Norris (McLaren) 1hr26m33.291s
2 Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) +5.832s
3 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +31.928s
4 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) +36.483s
5 George Russell (Mercedes) +37.538s
6 Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +49.847s
7 Pierre Gasly (Alpine) +1m12.560s
8 Nico Hülkenberg (Haas) +1m15.554s
9 Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) +1m22.373s
10 Oscar Piastri (McLaren) +1m23.821s
11 Alex Albon (Williams) Lapped
12 Yuki Tsunoda (RB) Lapped
13 Zhou Guanyu (Sauber) Lapped
14 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) Lapped
15 Jack Doohan (Alpine) Lapped
16 Kevin Magnussen (Haas) Lapped
17 Liam Lawson (RB) Retired
18 Valtteri Bottas (Sauber) Retired
19 Franco Colapinto (Williams) Retired
20 Sergio Pérez (Red Bull) Retired
2024 Formula 1 Drivers’ Championship
1 Max Verstappen 437
2 Lando Norris 374
3 Charles Leclerc 356
4 Oscar Piastri 292
5 Carlos Sainz 290
6 George Russell 245
7 Lewis Hamilton 223
8 Sergio Pérez 152
9 Fernando Alonso 70
10 Pierre Gasly 42
11 Nico Hülkenberg 41
12 Yuki Tsunoda 30
13 Lance Stroll 24
14 Esteban Ocon 23
15 Kevin Magnussen 16
16 Alex Albon 12
17 Daniel Ricciardo 12
18 Oliver Bearman 7
19 Franco Colapinto 5
20 Zhou Guanyu 4
21 Liam Lawson 4
22 Valtteri Bottas 0
23 Logan Sargeant 0
24 Jack Doohan 0
2024 Formula 1 Constructors’ Championship
1 McLaren 666
2 Ferrari 652
3 Red Bull 589
4 Mercedes 468
5 Aston Martin 94
6 Alpine 65
7 Haas 58
8 RB 46
9 Williams 17
10 Sauber 4