Max Verstappen

Across the entire 2024 season, there’s really no doubt that Max Verstappen has been the stand-out driver. This was a very different campaign to his previous three titles. After a season of dominance in ’23, this year started well for Max with four wins in the first five races. From Miami, however, the competition caught up with Red Bull and the team seemed to lose its way in terms of development.

This is where the Dutchman really earned his position at the top of the rankings and the world championship in my opinion. There were times when the Red Bull was the fourth-best car and while team-mate Sergio Pérez failed to get on the podium from Miami onwards, Max kept himself and the team in play with brilliant wins in Imola, Canada and Barcelona (the latter two could have been won by Lando Norris) plus podiums at Silverstone and Zandvoort.

There was clearly frustration building but I never subscribed to the theory that Max was feeling the pressure. To me, he’s a driver who sets very high standards for himself and the people around him. When he feels the team aren’t meeting those standards, he lets them know. His diplomatic skills are swiftly overpowered by his desire to win and the team members take that on the chin because they know how valuable his talent is.

The sub-par weekend in Baku, clumsy collisions with Lewis in Hungary and Oscar in Abu Dhabi and the road rage in Mexico were the only blemishes in an otherwise consistently brilliant season, with the rain-soaked victory in Brazil, a reminder of just how much raw talent he possesses.

Best race: Brazil is the obvious choice for an utterly faultless and dominant victory, but Barcelona, particularly the first stint, was also outstanding.

Key challenge for 2025: Can Max win a fifth title without potentially the fastest car for the whole season?

Charles Leclerc

There’s a strong argument for saying that this was Charles Leclerc’s best season in Formula 1. Sure, in 2022 he was a title contender but the car was more competitive and he made mistakes. Across the whole year the Ferrari was never really consistently quick enough to make him a championship challenger but the Monegasque achieved a level of decent form in his driving with less errors than in previous years.

I’ve said on many occasions in the past that I believe Leclerc is the fastest driver over one lap and some of his qualifying performances this year were scintillating. The one in Monte Carlo was straight out of the Nigel Mansell/Silverstone playbook of a driver digging deep into the well of motivation to deliver a perfect lap on their home turf. The race victory in Monza, where he managed his ageing tyres against a charging McLaren on two stops versus his one, was as sublime as the podium in Zandvoort. The dominant wins in Monaco and Austin underlined the case for him being a title contender if the car allows.

One of Leclerc’s weak points in the past seemed to be indecision in terms of strategy and perhaps letting the pitwall dictate things a bit too much, sometimes against his own instinct. This year he changed race engineers after the opening seven weekends and his relationship with Bryan Bozzi, along with the experienced Jock Clear still in his corner in a coaching and mentoring role, seems to be working better. A winter to reflect on their working method will be vital as he prepares for the next big challenge of taking on Lewis Hamilton in 2025.

Best race: Austin – Leclerc pre-empted the situation ahead of him to take the lead at the first corner and never looked back.

Key challenge for 2025: Beating new team-mate Lewis Hamilton to establish himself as top dog at Ferrari.

 Lando Norris

This was a season where Lando Norris went from being the nearly man to one of the top competitors on the track. There was never any doubt about his speed but the race victories had evaded him and he needed to shake that monkey off his back. His first Formula 1 win, in Miami, was fortuitous with the timing of the safety car but Norris had the speed to pull away from Max Verstappen and show that he could win.

In terms of outright speed in qualifying, there were really some very special laps from Norris this year. Watching back the onboards of the pole positions from Spain, Singapore and Austin in particular were an absolute joy. Breathtaking precision and commitment from a driver completely at one with their car.

As a hugely popular figure both within and outside the paddock, you get the feeling that Norris is sometimes grappling with his natural instinct of being the nice guy versus the ruthless brutal force that you see in a Verstappen or Fernando Alonso. Could he have been harsher with Verstappen when going wheel to wheel in Austria and Austin? Absolutely. Should he have been harder in his defence against Oscar Piastri on the opening lap in Monza? Probably.

Watching him lose out at the start in Spain, Belgium, Hungary, Italy, Austin and Brazil was frustrating. The team could have done a better job in terms of communication and strategy in Canada and Silverstone as well, which cost him more points. Ultimately, the big question is did Lando lose the title because of these races? I’m not convinced that’s true, as he was 52 points behind after the first five weekends when the McLaren wasn’t as quick as the Red Bull. And that’s where the bulk of the damage was done.

Best race: Zandvoort – tremendous pace to record an utterly dominant win.

Key challenge for 2025: Iron out the weaknesses at starts and communication with the pitwall to put on a title challenge.

Carlos Sainz

It must have been an incredibly tough start to the year for Carlos Sainz, knowing that he was being replaced at Ferrari through no fault of his own. He had been delivering well, had a good relationship with the team and yet the opportunity for Ferrari to sign statistically the greatest driver in Formula 1 history left him searching for a job. With Mercedes and Red Bull shunning him and no seat at McLaren, the prospect of heading into the midfield couldn’t have been easy to deal with mentally.

Throw in a bout of appendicitis in Saudi Arabia and it was a miserable start to 2024 but he responded with a brilliant victory in Melbourne barely a fortnight after leaving hospital. It was fairy-tale stuff and on the whole it’s been a good year for him. While Leclerc has outqualified him more often than not, the gap between them has been a mere 0.066 on average across the year.

If you factor in the non-start in Saudi and the unfortunate collision on the final lap in Baku, Sainz wouldn’t actually be too far behind Leclerc in the points table. There was a run of four races from Hungary to Monza where he seemed to drop behind Leclerc but then recovered well in the final third of the season to be on par.

Carlos’s work ethic, speed and intellect are key ingredients of why it was a mistake for both Red Bull and Mercedes to have ignored him for 2025. It’s a massive coup for Williams and together with Alex Albon they will have one of the best driver line-ups on the grid.

The Grove team is on a rebuilding journey and despite the investment and changes, it will be at least three years before we see Williams fighting consistently at the sharp end. You can’t help but think that it’s three years of Carlos Sainz at his peak but not the podiums he deserves.

Best race: Mexico City Grand Prix – two laps good enough for pole and he flew off into the distance.

Key challenge for 2025: To stay motivated knowing that wins and podiums are unlikely.

George Russell

A strange season for Mercedes. There were flashes of positivity that made me think it was finally turning a corner in this current ground-effect era of F1. In the end, despite a purple patch in the middle of the year, the team never really got to the point where every weekend saw them as a contender.

Amid that, George Russell had a great season. The run in the second half of ’24 was outstanding: he outqualified Lewis 12–1 in the final 13 races! In the middle of the year, he was fortunate to pick up big points in Austria and Baku due to others’ misfortune but it was balanced by bad luck in Silverstone and Spa.

In the final part of the season Russell fully stepped into the team leader’s role. On a cold weekend in Vegas when the Mercedes magically became the fastest car, he dominated the race.

Best race: Spa – he executed a risky strategy exceedingly well but was unlucky that the car was underweight.

Key challenge for 2025: It will really depend on the car, but more wins should be the target.

Oscar Piastri

Budapest was a good case in point where in 2023 Oscar Piastri really fell away, finishing 29sec behind team-mate Lando Norris (in second), yet a year later, after an aggressive move at the start, he held his own at the front of the race, managing the pace and gap exceedingly well.

In Baku, we saw more of that confident, decisive overtaking. Just when the McLaren pitwall suggested it may be a good idea for him to manage his pace and drop back from Charles Leclerc, he chose to seize the opportunity to go for the winning move. After that, Piastri showed intelligence and calmness when he soaked up the pressure from Leclerc without so much as a lock-up.

There were still weekends like Austin, Singapore and Zandvoort when Lando had a clear margin which is something to work on for next year. Oscar rarely makes mistakes which is a great asset for a team and he could also have won in Monza and Spa if the strategy played out slightly differently for him and the team. If he makes another step forward this winter, the battle between him and Lando will be very interesting to watch next year.

Best race: Baku – superbly aggressive and then defensive at a key moment when he needed to do it.

Key challenge for 2025: Try and do away with some of those dips we saw this year relative to Lando.

Lewis Hamilton

It seemed odd to hear a driver with over 100 pole positions repeatedly say that he was bad at qualifying – but that seemed to be the running theme of 2024 for Lewis Hamilton. For whatever reason, he struggled to extract the performance over one lap that George Russell could and this left him with a deficit of 0.175 across the season. There were times, like in Zandvoort, Baku and Austin, where he wasn’t even in the top 12 and looked really dejected afterwards.

Having said that, there were some genuinely superb weekends, often under the radar (Spain and Hungary). The victory in Silverstone was my feelgood moment of the season. In that final stint with Max Verstappen charging at him, Lewis delivered some old magic by superbly managing his pace and tyres. As his engineer Pete Bonnington said afterwards, “there’s life in the old GOAT yet”. Abu Dhabi was more evidence of that.

A big challenge at Ferrari awaits but if Lewis can gel with the car and the environment and rediscover his qualifying form, he can be as potent as ever.

Best race: Silverstone – a fairy-tale win on home soil after the longest dry spell of his illustrious career.

Key challenge for 2025: Taking on Charles Leclerc at Ferrari.

 Niko Hülkenberg

I feel like the rehabilitation of Nico Hülkenberg, from being dropped by Renault, spending three seasons on the sidelines as an occasional substitute and then returning to Haas, was completed in ’24. Haas, under the new leadership of Ayao Komatsu, had a fresh bounce in its step. The competitiveness of the basic package and improved upgrades allied to some smart operational thinking on the pitwall gave the drivers a better chance of results and it was the German who grabbed the opportunities more often than not.

Not only did he score enough points to end up 11th in the drivers’ championship but he also finished in 11th place seven times! This stat annoyed him but was a good reflection of his consistency.

‘The Hülk’ was excellent at executing the sometimes aggressive strategies that Haas had to use to gain track position with sixth places in Austria and Silverstone as well as eighth in Austin being great examples. If he was a bit younger, Red Bull would have snapped him up!

Best race: Silverstone – a complicated race strategically with the weather but he kept his head to finish a brilliant sixth.

Key challenge for 2025: Rebuilding a seemingly lost Sauber to prepare for the Audi arrival.

 Pierre Gasly

In a generally tumultuous season for the works Alpine team (apart from the obvious highlight of a 2-3 in São Paulo), Pierre Gasly seemed to quietly go about his business and have a good season in tough circumstances to set himself up as the experienced team leader for 2025.

With upheaval behind the scenes in terms of personnel leaving, the closing of the Formula 1 engine operations and question marks around Renault’s long-term commitment to the project, the season started with a car being overweight. As the year unfolded and the competitiveness improved, Gasly responded and went on a run of four points finishes in a row from Monaco to Austria. His qualifying form towards the end of the season has been superb and while 2025 could be a transitional year, he will be well placed to lead the team with its new Mercedes engine partnership from 2026 onwards.

Best race: Brazil is the obvious one but Canada was actually an excellent drive as well in mixed conditions going from 15th to ninth.

Key challenge for 2025: Keeping the team’s motivation up in a stop-gap year of Renault engines and gearboxes before they transition to a future with Mercedes.

Fernando Alonso

Against the backdrop of an impressive start to 2023, Aston Martin’s latest season has been hugely disappointing. Memories of Fernando Alonso racking up those regular podiums feel like a lifetime ago replaced by sullen figures in green attire wearing the weight of expectation on their shoulders.

The only bit of good news, apart from Adrian Newey coming to join the team, is that the Spanish double world champion is as fast and feisty as ever. And while it’s not a surprise that he’s comprehensively outperformed his Aston team-mate Lance Stroll in 2024, the fact that he’s got nearly triple the points is a measure of how Alonso never ceases to grab opportunities that present themselves.

Alonso is 43, let’s not forget, and the oldest driver on the grid. At this stage of his life and career, to have the motivation to fight just as hard for ninth place as he did for a race win 20 years ago is something that is admirable.

Best race: Saudi Arabia – he qualified a superb fourth and finished fifth (which now feels like an eternity ago).

Key challenge for 2025: Continue to keep the motivation up and hope that the Newey era delivers from 2026.