Verstappen keeps the crown, McLaren take the team title

For the first few races, 2024 looked worryingly familiar. Max Verstappen won four of the opening five Grands Prix and Red Bull seemed ready to carry its 2023 form into another season.

Then Lando Norris won in Miami. McLaren’s upgrades worked, Ferrari remained close, and Mercedes eventually joined the fight as well. Seven drivers from four teams won a race, Verstappen went ten Grands Prix without a victory, and the Constructors’ Championship remained open until Abu Dhabi.

Verstappen still did enough to claim a fourth consecutive Drivers’ title. The other trophy, however, went to McLaren for the first time since 1998.

Race Calendar

The calendar reached 24 races for the first time. Japan moved to April, China returned after a four-year absence, and all scheduled rounds took place. Six weekends also included a Sprint: China, Miami, Austria, the United States, São Paulo, and Qatar.

Drivers and Constructors

One of the defining pre-season facts of 2024 was how little changed. For the first time in Formula 1 history, the season began with exactly the same driver line-ups that had ended the previous year.

• Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren, Aston Martin, Alpine, Haas, Racing Bulls, Williams, and Kick Sauber all started 2024 with unchanged pairings.
• The main structural changes were on the team side rather than the driver side, most visibly AlphaTauri becoming Racing Bulls and Alfa Romeo becoming Kick Sauber.
• That initial stability did not last the full year: Oliver Bearman, Franco Colapinto, Liam Lawson, and Jack Doohan all made race appearances later in the season.

2024 Season Analysis

The winners’ table shows where the season changed. Verstappen won seven of the first ten races, but only two of the remaining fourteen. By then all three rival front-running teams had found ways to beat Red Bull.

Norris and Oscar Piastri became Grand Prix winners for the first time, Charles Leclerc finally won at home in Monaco, and Lewis Hamilton ended a two-and-a-half-year wait at Silverstone. Even so, Verstappen’s early advantage and his outstanding drive from P17 in São Paulo gave Norris too much ground to recover.

The season produced several memorable results:

• Norris claimed his first Grand Prix victory in Miami and became Verstappen’s main title challenger.
• Piastri earned his first Grand Prix wins in Hungary and Azerbaijan, confirming McLaren had two drivers capable of converting pace into victories.
• Leclerc finally won at Monaco, then added another emotionally significant Ferrari win at Monza.
• Hamilton returned to the top step at Silverstone, then was credited with victory in Belgium in the official results after George Russell’s disqualification.
• Sainz remained a major factor for Ferrari, winning in Australia and Mexico City.
• Verstappen’s wet-weather recovery drive to victory in Sao Paulo became one of the defining performances of the season and effectively ended the remaining doubt in the Drivers’ Championship.

Points, Podiums, Sprints and DNFs

Verstappen still recorded the most podiums with 14, but the gap was small. Leclerc and Norris had 13 each, Sainz nine, and Piastri eight. Ferrari actually collected one more podium than McLaren, even though McLaren finished ahead in the championship.

The strongest measure of consistency belonged to three drivers. Verstappen, Norris, and Piastri finished in the top ten in 23 of the 24 Grands Prix. Leclerc, Russell, and Hamilton managed 21 points finishes, while Sainz had 20.

The contrast inside Red Bull is difficult to miss: Verstappen scored in 23 races, compared with 16 for Sergio Pérez. That difference eventually cost the team any realistic chance of defending the Constructors’ title.

Verstappen also earned the most Sprint points with 38. Norris scored 30, followed by Leclerc on 29, Sainz on 28, and Piastri on 27. The margins were small enough for the six Sprint weekends to matter, but not large enough to change the direction of either championship on their own.

Norris set six fastest laps, twice as many as Verstappen or Leclerc. It is another indication of how quick the McLaren became after its early-season upgrades, even if that pace did not always turn into the maximum available points.

Alexander Albon had the most retirements with six, followed by Pérez with five and Yuki Tsunoda with four. At the front, Verstappen, Norris, and Leclerc retired only once each. Finishing races was not the whole championship story, but it helped keep all three near the top throughout a 24-round season.

Point Progression

Verstappen built his championship lead before the summer and never lost it. Norris reduced the damage several times, particularly after Miami, but mistakes, missed opportunities, and Verstappen’s consistency meant the gap never fully disappeared. The Dutchman secured the title in Las Vegas with two races still to run.

The Constructors’ Championship followed a different path. Red Bull led early, McLaren moved ahead after Azerbaijan, and Ferrari stayed close enough to keep the contest alive until the final race. Norris won in Abu Dhabi to secure the title for McLaren by only 14 points.

Conclusions and Final Standings

Verstappen finished the season on 437 points, 63 ahead of Norris. That margin looks comfortable, but it hides how much the balance changed after the opening races. Red Bull went from setting the pace to fighting three teams, and Pérez’s difficult year left it third in the Constructors’ standings.

McLaren’s 666 points were enough to beat Ferrari by 14 and end a 26-year wait for the teams’ title. More importantly for the following season, Norris and Piastri had shown that both could win regularly.

Note: Results were checked against the official Formula 1 classifications. The charts were generated from the Jolpica F1 API, the maintained successor to Ergast.