Was the 2024 season one of the best of the XNUMXst century?

Remember last year, in 2023: at the end of a season completely dominated by Red Bull et Max Verstappen (21 victories in 22 Grands Prix for the Austrian team), we then wondered if the season that had just passed had not been the most bland of the 21st century in Formula 1A year later, we are asking ourselves the opposite question: what if the campaign that has just ended was ultimately the best of our century?

The arguments in favor of this 2024 season are numerous, if only by statistics: in 24 Grands Prix – the longest season in history, it must be remembered – we have had seven different winners. A nice number… but which is even more impressive when we remember that these seven winners have all won at least two Grands Prix this year, a record in the history of the discipline! Max Verstappen (9 victories), Lando Norris (4) Charles Leclerc (3) Lewis Hamilton (2), George Russell (2), Oscar piastri (2) et Carlos Sainz (2) have each been multiple Grand Prix winners in 2024. We could almost have forgotten it as they played so much at the front, but the two drivers McLaren won their first Grand Prix this year!

Records, there have been many others this season : Fernando Alonso for example became the first driver to pass the 400 Grand Prix mark, McLaren became the first team in history to record no retirements, Oscar Piastri broke the record for the number of laps completed in a season and finally, thanks to his incredible victory on home soil, Lewis Hamilton broke a plethora of records with his ninth success at Silverstone.

Four teams in the running for victories

Beyond the records, it was the uncertainty over each race weekend that kept us on tenterhooks until the last Grand Prix, in Abu Dhabi at the beginning of December. Despite an almost one-sided start to the season for Max Verstappen and Red Bull, winner of seven of the first ten races of the championship, the second half of the season was much more competitive than we could have hoped after Bahrain last March! The drivers Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes, not forgetting Max Verstappen, were all able to fight for victory, each with different dynamics, sometimes empty passages and unexpected bursts. After Bahrain, who would have imagined that Mercedes would record four victories this season? Who could have imagined a fight between McLaren and Ferrari in the Constructors' Championship? Who could have believed that Red Bull would only finish third in this same championship?

This championship, which, precisely, was much more disputed than expected, and that was not to displease us. In the Drivers, Max Verstappen was able to capitalize on his incredible start to the season to play the grocer when the Red Bull RB20 regressed after the summer break and maintain a solid lead against Lando Norris. The Briton believed in this crazy comeback until the end, but came up against the merciless world champion who, in difficult moments, sometimes went to the limit and even beyond to disrupt the effort of his English friend and rival. With four victories in his pocket and fierce duels against the Dutchman, Lando Norris has nevertheless been emboldened with a view to 2025, where he will this time be a serious contender for the title.

© Eric Alonso / DPPI

The return of the McLaren vs. Ferrari duel

But Max Verstappen and Lando Norris were not the only protagonists of this intense 2024 season. Third in the championship, Charles Leclerc had perhaps his best season in Formula 1 with prestigious and emotional victories in Monaco and Monza, not to mention the one in Austin. Carlos Sainz also had his best performance with two successes, including an incredible comeback in Melbourne, just two weeks after his appendicitis operation. The two Scuderia drivers flew the colours of the Prancing Horse high in 2024, to the point of being involved in the race for the Constructors' title right up until the final laps of the season! Alas, the tifosi will have to wait a little longer before seeing Ferrari lift its first title since 2008...

The Scuderia fell just 14 points behind McLaren in this epic title race, in a historic duel between the two biggest teams in the sport. The Woking team ended a 26-year title drought thanks to its shock duo Lando Norris – Oscar Piastri, even if the British team has made things difficult during the season with a hierarchy that was long unclear between the two young drivers and team orders that were slow to be implemented. However, McLaren has made a formidable return to the top spot: less than two years ago, at the start of the 2023 season, the Papayas were unable to even get out of Q1!

In addition to the teams at the top of the table, the teams in the middle of the pack also put on a great show. The fight for 6th place was very tight until the last Grand Prix, a position that finally went to Alpine thanks to an almost miraculous end to the season. At mid-season, the team ofenstone was experiencing its worst campaign since 2016, but thanks to the developments made to the A524 and, above all, thanks to this unthinkable double podium at the Brazilian Grand Prix in appalling conditions, Pierre Gasly et Esteban Ocon managed to bring the French team back up and save the balance sheet ofAlpine in 2024. A record, however, blackened by controversies and controversial decisions, such as the end of the engine program in 2026, the return of Flavio Briatore or the dismissal of Esteban Ocon before the last round of the season...

© Florent Gooden / DPPI

Youth takes power in F1

Alpine However, he fought hard against Haas and Racing Bulls, two teams that we didn't necessarily expect after a failed 2023 season for both teams. With Ayao Komatsu at the helm, the American team has found a second wind and will be a team to watch in 2025 with the arrival of Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman and the technical support of Toyota. For Racing Bulls, despite the game of musical chairs within the Red Bull fold, Laurent Mekies' team has seen great progress in 2024 and will also be a team to watch next year, notably with the arrival of a third Frenchman in F1, Isack Hadjar.

And yes, because beyond the on-track actions, the victories and the titles, the 2024 season was marked by a completely crazy transfer window that started before the championship even began. The departure of Lewis Hamilton from Mercedes to join Ferrari, announced on February 1, is considered the transfer of the century by many, and this earthquake caused chain reactions with in particular the departure of Carlos Sainz to Williams and the arrival of Andrea Kimi Antonelli at Mercedes in 2025. The young 18-year-old Italian driver will not be the only rookie next year since Gabriel Bortoleto and Jack Doohan will also make their debuts, respectively with Sauber and Alpine.

A youth that is taking power and which, inevitably, has caused the departure of some of the discipline's leaders. Some may even have competed in the last Grand Prix of their career this season: Daniel Ricciardo, Valtteri Bottas, Kevin Magnussen or Sergio Pérez were all dismissed at the end of this 2024 campaign and with the young generation arriving, it is difficult to see them returning in 2026... unless the new Cadillac team decides to relaunch one of its "rejects" from Formula 1.

The 2024 season at the top of the basket?

In short, you will have understood: this long and intense 2024 season will remain in the annals of Formula 1 no matter what happens, whether in sporting, statistical or emotional terms. But is it really the best season of the 2003st century? The answer is obviously subjective. Some will say yes, thanks to the diversity of winners, the unprecedented four-way match between Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes, the various transfers and replacements during the season, the records, the surprises, etc. Others will say no, in particular because of the lack of real suspense in the Drivers' Championship which was resolved before the last two races of the season, but also because of the off-track controversies, the scuffles between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris or the wars of words between Red Bull and Mercedes. Nostalgic people will argue that the 2008, 2012, 2021 or even 2024 seasons were much more interesting... In any case, whether we loved it or hated it, this XNUMX season will have left no one indifferent!

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