And breathe. Method 1’s 24-race marathon is completed, dusted, and to be firmly ensconced within the historical past books; it is already gone from current to previous tense on Wikipedia.
It has been an important 12 months for F1, as expectations of one other Max Verstappen title rout had been firmly dispelled because the rising forces behind Purple Bull nudged it off its perch. Verstappen overcame the renewed problem to maintain his arms on the title belt however, on the idea of this 12 months, he’ll have his work minimize out to say a fifth.
The remaining unfastened ends had been tied up on the Abu Dhabi finale, as McLaren laced up its first constructors’ title in 26 years to place Ferrari’s rising problem firmly to mattress. In his controlling victory on the Yas Marina circuit, Lando Norris took the oh-so-coveted vice-champion accolade to go down in historical past as one in every of seven billion individuals who did not win the F1 title in 2024. Higher luck subsequent 12 months, chap.
An intense battle for sixth within the constructors’ championship additionally reached its conclusion: in a season-long battle contested by Haas and RB, the honours went to Alpine due to a dramatic restoration within the ultimate quarter of the season (plus a useful little bit of luck with inclement climate in Brazil). There’s nonetheless just a few issues left to resolve away from the circuit, specifically the Purple Bull and RB line-ups, regardless that Sergio Perez undoubtedly has a contract and undoubtedly will not be going wherever…
So, for the ultimate time this 12 months, let’s do that: here is every little thing we realized on the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
1. McLaren goes by way of hell and again once more for first constructors’ title since 1998
Norris, Piastri and Brown are simply a part of the large effort to push McLaren again to glory
Picture by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Pictures
In 1998, McLaren ended a barren spell within the mid-Nineties due to the Adrian Newey-penned MP4/13 chassis and a powerful line-up in Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard, and got here away from the 12 months with each titles in tow.
The staff was again on the entrance of the sphere however, one way or the other, did not win one other constructors’ title for 26 years. Hakkinen gained the drivers’ title in 1999, however Ferrari swung the groups’ crown by 4 factors albeit after having its disqualification on the Malaysian Grand Prix overturned regardless of apparently unlawful bargeboards. The Prancing Horse then adopted up on this in 2000 to embark on a streak of dominance whereas McLaren paled compared.
The 2007 season ought to have been the 12 months when McLaren secured its ninth constructors’ championship, if not for a Surrey copy-shop proprietor blowing the whistle on the spouse of technical director Mike Coughlan – a request to photocopy 780 pages of confidential Ferrari paperwork had not gone completely beneath the radar…
McLaren contended for titles within the early 2010s, however couldn’t defeat Purple Bull over that point interval earlier than enduring a regression over the following few years. Poor vehicles in 2013 and 2014 led to a disastrous swap to Honda powertrains, and its continued plummet led to Zak Brown arriving in 2016 and taking the highest job from 2018. Because of his knack for pulling in companions and placing individuals in the proper locations, McLaren’s fortunes picked up. Now, it has a title to point out for the final 5 – 6 years of regular, sustainable regrowth.
Norris largely carried the title fortunes on his personal again in Abu Dhabi, whereas Oscar Piastri needed to get better from being nerfed off the highway by Verstappen and his personal penalty for ramming Franco Colapinto into Flip 6 throughout stated restoration. So long as Norris gained, McLaren had the deal sealed – and Ferrari couldn’t apply sufficient stress to pressure the Briton right into a mistake.
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Piastri added his personal level into the combo after rising to tenth by the tip as a ultimate garnish for the staff’s championship win. Neither Norris or Piastri had been born when McLaren final gained the title – for these at Woking who’ve remained on the staff in that point, it has been a protracted previous highway again to the highest.
2. The Prancing Horse cannot catch Crew Papaya
Norris was in a position to hold Sainz at bay to clinch the producer’s title for McLaren, regardless of a late-season Ferrari surge
Picture by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Pictures
Ferrari had a jolly good go at getting concerned in Method 1’s constructors’ battle however, regardless of the colossal strides the staff has made operationally and with its race tempo over 2024, it did not have fairly have the legs over McLaren to shut it out.
By means of Charles Leclerc’s Monaco win, Ferrari at the least stayed in contact with Purple Bull within the constructors’ standings however, after its disasterclass in Canada, it misplaced vital floor and was later overtaken for second by McLaren in Hungary. At one level, Ferrari was over 70 factors away from the highest of the championship, however Purple Bull’s declining fortunes and Sergio Perez’s lack of contribution introduced the defending champion outfit into view.
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Ferrari moved forward of it in Mexico, and obtained to inside 29 factors of McLaren for the ultimate 4 races. The hole was simply 21 factors by the tip of Qatar, leaving Ferrari needing two robust outcomes from Sainz and Leclerc and hope different outcomes went its solution to snatch a primary constructors’ title since 2008.
However Norris was too robust to beat, as Ferrari ceded a tenth or two to McLaren over the weekend. It tried to place McLaren beneath stress with just a few pitlane dummies, hoping to entice Norris to anticipate and canopy off an imaginary pitstop, however the Briton’s hole was too nice – he was within the place the place he may merely reply to no matter Ferrari did. There was little that Maranello’s best may do besides hope that Norris encountered strife, however that in the end by no means emerged.
3. Verstappen vs Russell, spherical two; Wolff vs Terrier, spherical 348
Russell was joined by Wolff for a rare press convention earlier than the weekend
Picture by: Ronald Vording
First, congratulations should go to Max Verstappen on his announcement that he’s to be a father, though he already considers himself a “bonus” dad to his companion Kelly Piquet’s daughter. Verstappen is somebody who has nice appreciation for his shut family and friends, and one imagines he is very joyful for his household to develop. And, even with the genetics of a Verstappen-Piquet youngster, the Dutchman may be very a lot hoping his youngster does not fancy following within the household enterprise…
Proper, that is the good bit out of the way in which – it is now time to show our consideration to Verstappen’s cleaning soap opera-adjacent argument with George Russell. After Qatar qualifying, Verstappen was most aggrieved at Russell’s antics within the stewards’ room and accused him of heavy lobbying to present him a grid penalty.
Russell took his proper of reply and said that Verstappen’s behaviour within the stewards’ room was additionally questionable and steered that the eventual race winner had a) threatened to place him right into a wall and b) had spent quite a lot of the stewards’ assembly swearing.
First grievance: okay, high-quality, it is most likely honest to be aggrieved at that. Second grievance: shades of Milhouse shouting “Mother, Bart’s swearing” when Bart Simpson merely requested to have a go on the blue-haired poindexter’s new copy of Bonestorm. All this, weeks after the GPDA said it wished drivers to be handled like adults…
Verstappen stood his floor, Russell stood his, prevented one another on the drivers’ end-of-year dinner, then the entire thing fizzled out as everybody obtained bored of the entire fiasco. Skilled sports activities dads Toto Wolff and Christian Horner, nevertheless, wished to rekindle a relationship that Horner described as “love-hate, in that he likes to hate me”. Wolff was notably aggrieved at how the Purple Bull staff principal had labelled Russell as “hysterical” and referred to Horner as a “yapping little terrier”.
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Requested to reply in Friday’s press convention, Horner reeled off a tangent concerning the totally different terriers he’d owned in an uncharacteristically jaunty cadence, clearly having ready the night time earlier than within the mirror. He then concluded his canine musings with the sentence “…however I might moderately be a terrier than a Wolff”.
Finish of season delirium, it appeared; everybody had gone barking mad in a season dogged with drama. It mastiff taken Horner all night time to give you that joke.
4. Perez’s defiance lastly wavers – however he nonetheless has a contract for 2025
Perez has been insistent on his return to Purple Bull subsequent season, although that confidence modified on Sunday night
Picture by: Purple Bull Content material Pool
In case you had been in completely any doubt, Sergio Perez has a contract for subsequent 12 months. To be honest to the beleaguered Perez, it should be more and more troublesome to reply the inevitable query about his future after ending exterior of the factors once more in a race-winning automobile. He cannot say “I do not know what the long run holds”, as a result of that weakens his place; Purple Bull provided him a contract earlier this 12 months, he signed it, and since then has been decidedly pants. However, and here is the essential bit: he has a contract.
Finally that contract – which Perez has, by the way in which – would require some form of buy-out charge to spring him from. And, as his outcomes have continued to worsen with 9 factors from the final eight races, Purple Bull’s choice appears very a lot made up.
It’s anticipated that Liam Lawson will be part of Max Verstappen, as Horner continues to disclaim that the mere idea of Yuki Tsunoda exists, and that F2 runner-up Isack Hadjar will transfer as much as RB to spend a 12 months blowing up the staff radio along with his irascible nature. In case you thought Yuki was a bit shouty, Hadjar goes to make him appear to be a penitent saint of endurance.
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That leaves Perez who, regardless of having a contract for subsequent 12 months, will probably be out of luck. And, regardless of his earlier defiance that he, certainly, has a contract for subsequent 12 months: that defiance maybe confirmed its first signal of slipping within the post-Abu Dhabi media periods – which he was apparently in an important rush to get to after retiring on lap one from harm along with his conflict with Valtteri Bottas.
“I simply know I’ve obtained a contract to race subsequent 12 months,” Perez started, a sentence that shocked and stunned all in attendance. “Until one thing adjustments within the coming days, that is going to be the scenario for subsequent 12 months”.
That is the primary acknowledgement he is provided that issues may certainly change. He has a contract to race subsequent 12 months, however that does not completely imply it’s going to be honoured if Purple Bull enacts a presumed break clause.
5. Hamilton goes forth after final dance with Mercedes
Hamilton made certain he ended his Mercedes profession on a relative excessive
Picture by: Lubomir Asenov / Motorsport Pictures
In order that’s it: after 12 seasons, 246 races, 84 wins, and 6 titles with Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton is leaving after a fraught ultimate season on the staff. Preliminary promise with this 12 months’s W15, a big departure from its earlier lineage of floor impact vehicles, subsided as its capricious nature meant the staff blew cold and hot all through the season. Hamilton, who values predictability and stability in his racing equipment, by no means absolutely gelled with the silver-and-black machine.
Ending fourth is somewhat little bit of a moist squib to finish on: it is not a win, and neither is it a podium, however it was a nonetheless good drive from sixteenth on the grid – no due to the intervention of a displaced bollard on his ultimate qualifying lap. The last-lap move on George Russell would have been a satisfying solution to finish a monumentally profitable tenure with Mercedes, even when the staff was surprisingly low-key with its send-off for the seven-time champion after his decades-long affiliation with the model. One wonders if Hamilton requested them to not go too wild with the farewells, or if it was vice versa.
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It is laborious to not be sentimental, as a result of it is within the pantheon of larger driver-team mixtures: suppose Senna and McLaren, Schumacher and Ferrari, Vettel/Verstappen and Purple Bull, Piquet and Brabham, Clark and Lotus, Stewart and Tyrrell. Regardless, Ferrari now beckons for Hamilton’s presumed ultimate years in F1 – and it is a change of scene and a change of fashion that he’ll nonetheless relish.
Mercedes has its subsequent younger hopeful to work with in Andrea Kimi Antonelli, whereas Russell takes on the staff chief mantle for 2025 and past. It will be a really totally different dynamic with Hamilton out of the image.
6. It is goodbye from him: Zhou, Bottas, Magnussen bow out…for now
Not the most effective finish for any of the 4 particular F1 departures, with Bottas retiring after contact with Magnussen
Picture by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Pictures
The scythe’s remorseless swing claimed the F1 careers of Zhou Guanyu, Valtteri Bottas, and Kevin Magnussen; the trio had been left seatless in F1’s wildest driver merry-go-round in some years, and now have their futures to think about for 2025. The Grim Reaper has, kindly, left all three with the chance to resurrect their F1 careers sooner or later; Cadillac’s entry in 2026 could go away a place open, as could any additional sudden actions across the discipline.
In fact, 2024 hasn’t been a stellar 12 months for any of them. For Magnussen, his 12 months solely picked up after it was confirmed that he would not be remaining in F1; the dearth of consolation on the brakes that he’d handled within the opening interval of the 12 months appeared to subside within the ultimate third, permitting him to place Nico Hulkenberg beneath the cosh on a extra common foundation. However, of the three, Magnussen might be the least affected.
The Dane has skilled life exterior of F1 earlier than, and has already been signed by BMW to drive its M Hybrid LMDh equipment – though it is but to be determined if this will probably be within the World Endurance Championship or the IMSA SportsCar Championship. Or each, perchance?
Zhou and Bottas, each let go by Sauber, wish to stick round in F1-adjacent roles. Bottas is in line for a return to Mercedes as a reserve, having spent his greatest years on the Brackley squad, whereas Zhou can also be casting his web round for the same position with one other staff. Each could be useful additions to any staff to have round; it has been an important disgrace to see them pootling round on the again with Sauber, and could be worthy contenders for a Caddy seat in ’26.
Franco Colapinto’s F1 journey additionally goes on hiatus after an explosive begin to life within the championship. Though his inventory took a dramatic rise and fall in his 9 races on the staff, he already seems like a part of the furnishings and appears much more relaxed with the rigours of racing on the highest degree than Logan Sargeant ever did. The loquacious Argentine will certainly be again in a race seat sooner or later; maybe a 12 months in a reserve position will give him a bit extra of a run-up than his shock introduction this season.
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7. Drivers in new colors and future stars in Abu Dhabi’s end-of-year take a look at
Sainz was the primary to hit the observe for his new staff on Monday after his podium on Sunday
Picture by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Pictures
We have already had a collection of shock driver actions this 12 months; the previous made manner for the brand new, and the likes of Lawson, Colapinto, Jack Doohan, Oliver Bearman all obtained possibilities to impress part-way by way of 2024 for a wide range of causes: sickness, sackings, driver bans, and, after all, “sod it, we would as properly bin Esteban off a race early”.
However they are not the one drivers to be put by way of their paces, as additional younger (and young-ish) hopefuls will get their probability to point out their mettle within the end-of-year Yas Marina operating – half Pirelli take a look at, half young-driver extravaganza.
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It is also an opportunity for the groups’ 2025 signings to get their first operating in at their new properties. Williams has acquired Carlos Sainz early for the take a look at, as Esteban Ocon’s early Alpine launch means he can drive for Haas. Sauber will get each halves of its new line-up behind the wheel as Nico Hulkenberg and newly topped F2 champion Gabriel Bortoleto will drive, whereas Doohan and Andrea Kimi Antonelli additionally put together for 2025 with their new groups.
Will Yuki Tsunoda star sufficient for Purple Bull that he lastly will get that coveted call-up to companion Max Verstappen? Will Pato O’Ward recommend to McLaren that he is worthy of F1 sooner or later? Will Luke Browning sufficiently wind up Isack Hadjar once more? We’ll discover out on Tuesday.
That is it for one more F1 marketing campaign, can McLaren take each titles subsequent season?
Picture by: Colin McMaster / Motorsport Pictures
On this article
Jake Boxall-Legge
Method 1
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