Good month, bad month - December 2024

Good

I Fought the Lawson
Lawson overcame predecessor Ricciardo’s engine penalties to one-stop himself from 19th to ninth in the US GP, all in his first race back in F1. Get him in the Red Bull quick.

Raging Bull
However, after not liking Lawson’s sprint race antics, Alonso then deliberately baulked the RB man in qualifying. Great to see the Spaniard’s lost none of that anger.

Stetson Strat
Ferrari actually aced the US GP strategy to win. Just like in Monza. Twice in one season. We can’t believe it either.

Toto Conspiracy
Post-Austin, Merc boss Wolff dived straight into conspiracy theorising by calling the stewarding “biased” and “bizarre” before vaguely eluding to “correlations”. The entertaining F1 soap opera rolls on.

Big in America
Bumper crowds hit Austin, with 150,000 attending Sunday alone. F1 truly has cracked the US, after years of trying.

Bad

Title Fight Extinguished
2024 has taught us that it’s going to take a rougher, tougher driver than Lando Norris to take on Verstappen. If the Brit doesn’t sharpen up, someone else will step into his place.

Asphalt Run Offs
Bring back gravel. All asphalt run-off does is promote tiresome driving tactics, tedious stewarding decisions and yawn-inducing post-race analysis. Austin showed us as much.

End of the Road?
In a car which was fast enough to win the sprint and looked like it could have taken pole for the race, Pérez only had the pace to battle with Red Bull juniors Tsunoda and Lawson.

Meat-free Cattle Grid
Hardly any celebrity kerfuffle on Brundle’s US F1 Grid Walk this year. Not a Megan Thee Stallion moment or Brad Pitt trip-up in sight. Disappointing.

Blunt Arrows
The Silver Arrows brought upgrades to Texas, only for Russell to crash out in qualifying and Hamilton to spin off early in the GP.