Formula 1 is back to its best in 2024. But does that means this season should be bracketed among the most outstanding in the world championship’s near-75 years? That we might even consider posing such a question would have been unthinkable back in March. As the biggest-ever season made up of a record-breaking 24 races picked up initial steam, we found ourselves braced for a third consecutive year of impressive yet grinding Red Bull domination as Max Verstappen began clicking off more grand prix wins without breaking significant sweat. We’d seen it all before.

But then quite unexpectedly, and to the delight of all except those within the Red Bull/Verstappen stable, everything changed. Suddenly F1 was unpredictable again. Guessing who would win ahead of a given weekend became harder, and at times impossible to gauge, such were the constant and intricate shifts in form. Red Bull faced threats to its hegemony on three fronts as McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes finally pulled their acts together – even if the last-named struggled to maintain its mid-summer purple patch. Out of nowhere, F1 became unmissable, in a season that included the core ingredients of a stone-cold classic: multiple protagonists fighting for wins in races that rarely failed to enthral; a title chase with an increasingly sharp edge; questionable on-track ethics mixed with virtuoso performances never to be forgotten; off-track intrigue and big-money moves that will shape the future; and a general climate of feel-good positivity that’s been sorely lacking for too long. Frankly, what a relief.

Two subjects dominated the news agenda ahead of the Bahrain season-opener: Lewis Hamilton’s sensational move to Ferrari for 2025; and the alleged conduct of Christian Horner amid accusations of improper behaviour towards a female employee. The Hamilton story was classic F1, raising all kinds of questions, including how awkward it would be for him to race on for Mercedes through the coming season. Talk about long goodbyes. Then there was Horner, who showed some brass neck as he rode out a humiliating and highly personal scandal. Cleared within Red Bull, the tsunami waves of this tawdry episode have still yet to reach every shore. Adrian Newey became the subject of intense speculation over where he’d go next – when all he really wanted was to be left alone to race his Lotus 49 at the Monaco Historique GP. Eventually the white smoke of a verdict: green over red, Aston Martin instead of Ferrari, while Horner picked his way through the potholes dug by Helmut Marko and the mendacious father of his talismanic number one driver. Does Horner now preside over a crumbling empire from which Verstappen one day soon will announce his own escape? Ford, committed to return to the very scene of where it once fouled, must be worried.

At the turn of March in Bahrain, what F1 needed was a really good race. It didn’t get one. Instead, Verstappen waltzed away to beat team-mate Sergio Pérez by a massive 22.4sec for his 55th career victory and eighth in a row. Here we go again. He won a week later too in Saudi Arabia, where at least teenager Oliver Bearman created a happy distraction with an impressive debut for Ferrari, as a late substitute for Carlos Sainz Jr. The sucker punch of Hamilton taking his drive wasn’t enough. Now his appendix added another painful kick.

“Life is a roller-coaster,” he radioed in on the cooldown lap two weeks later, as Sainz savoured an astounding comeback victory in Australia. So, no talk of a Red Bull unbeaten run this time, then. Although Albert Park was a mere “hiccup” for Verstappen when he resumed normal service at Suzuka as the Japanese round shifted to the spring. Then he waltzed to another win in returning China, for four out of five. Uh-oh.

It was Miami where everything changed. “About time, huh?” said Lando Norris in his post-race interview. Yes, a safety car had created the opportunity, but McLaren’s pace was all too real. Still, it was an anomaly – wasn’t it? Imola was Red Bull country after all. Yet Norris closed, closed, closed in the final throes in Italy and came up just 0.7sec short of Verstappen. This was looking promising.

Monaco was all about Charles Leclerc as he banished the hoodoo of a home-race curse. Feel-good F1? This was becoming a welcome new habit. Canada fell to Verstappen but only after a dose of his own safety car luck and rough edges in the attacks of both Norris and shock pole position winner George Russell. Was Mercedes really back as a contender too?

Verstappen won again, after a tense fight with a frustrated Norris, in Spain. But we’d have scoffed at the prospect of this being his last win for more than four months. Now the season really found its groove as the champion’s friendship with Norris spilled into an uncomfortable, prickly rivalry.

They collided in Austria, as Verstappen fell back on familiar old traits. We hadn’t seen his ruthless streak for a while, simply because he hadn’t needed it. Now he was under pressure – and predictably he didn’t take it well. Oh the petulance.

George Russell inherited victory on Red Bull’s home turf, then it was time for Silverstone. What a day. The partisan atmosphere crackled as mixed weather threw a six, with Hamilton brilliantly ending a 945-day win drought. Was his ninth British GP victory his finest? It’s probably a contender with his first in 2008. Now Mercedes had won two on the bounce.

“Should Norris have ignored  a McLaren team order against him?”

Hungary sizzled, above. Should Norris, now beginning to emerge as a title challenger, have ignored a McLaren team order against him? On merit, this was Oscar Piastri’s day – surely the first of many. Had Norris followed his gut and ignored the order to cede the position he’d gained through manipulated strategy the effects within McLaren would have been catastrophic. His engineer Will Joseph told him on the radio, “The way to win a championship is with the team. You’re going to need Oscar and you’re going to need the team.” Lando made the right call – although should McLaren have already put its full weight behind Norris at this stage as its best hope of catching Verstappen? That’s easy to judge in hindsight. Meanwhile, Verstappen’s fury was off the leash. Rattled doesn’t really cut it.

Russell’s post-race DSQ at Spa for being underweight after an inspired one-stopper was a nasty sting, as Hamilton picked up a win after his own excellent drive. Then, after a pause for summer, Norris dominated at Zandvoort in front of his rival’s orange army. The gap was 70 points with nine to go. Surely not.

Leclerc grabbed a sweet Monaco-Monza double for an enraptured tifosi as McLaren twisted itself in knots over ‘papaya rules’ between its drivers. But it wasn’t an issue in Baku with Norris out of the picture after a troubled qualifying, as Piastri pulled a ‘beaut’ of a pass on Leclerc for victory. Norris revived in the heat of a Singapore night to reduce the gap to Verstappen to 52, but after an autumn break in the schedule the technicalities of ‘racing rules’ came into play in Austin. Verstappen’s defence was to the letter – but it still left a sour taste. Which became full-on bitter when he drove Norris (and himself) clean off the track in Mexico. Here once again was the worst of the three-time champion.

Now for the best of him. Verstappen’s comeback win from 17th on the grid in São Paulo was a personal landmark. Yes, it was the first since Spain back in June, but more than that it was one of his finest performances yet seen – befitting of a great season.

So, we come back to the question: was 2024 among the greatest? Our writers have chosen 12 to recall in this issue – but you’ll know better than us whether this one has made it a baker’s dozen. As Motor Sport rolls to the presses, Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi are yet to come. As it stands after Brazil, Verstappen’s brilliance has blown the wind out of Norris’s sails. If Max has since completed the job without too much drama that probably means 2024 will be judged merely very good – perhaps not great. An outstanding F1 season requires an outstanding finish, after all.

On the other hand, if Norris has pulled off numerically the biggest comeback in F1 history its place here ahead of our list is fully justified.

Either way, ‘F1 back to its best’ remains an accurate epitaph to the 2024 season. It’s been so much better than we feared. Then again, consider what’s to come when the circus starts again: Hamilton vs Leclerc at Ferrari; Norris and Piastri fighting for the upper hand at McLaren; Verstappen facing… exactly what at Red Bull? On paper, 2025 should be an absolute corker. The best might be yet to come.