As the 2024 Driver’s Championship comes to a close, many are wondering who will win the highest honor in the “pinnacle of motorsport,” Formula 1. This season, both the Driver’s Championship and the Constructors Championship are up for grabs, causing an intensity that has not been seen in the sport in years.
After a dominating 2023 season, Max Verstappen, a driver for Red Bull Racing, returned to Formula 1 as a three-time world champion, and was prepared to defend his title on his way towards his 4th title. Winning 21 out of 22 Grands Prix in 2023, with a lone loss to Ferrari’s Carlos “Smooth Operator” Sainz, Red Bull was projected to conquer their rivals and win the Constructors title in 2024, with their number 1 driver Max Verstappen anticipated to win the drivers title.
The season would start as expected; Verstappen won the first two races of the season, then won seven out of the first ten races. While this was not as dominant as his 2023 season, where he finished first eight out of the first ten races while finishing second in the two races he did not win, there seemed to be no shadow of a doubt that Verstappen would once again dominate this season with ease. After the first of two stints during the 2024 season, which was marked by the summer break (month-long break from races), Max Verstappen led the championship at 393 points, 62 points ahead of second place Lando Norris.
During the summer break, however, speculations and rumors were already spreading online that there may be an interesting ending to the championship at the end of this year, with predictions that it would not be as easy for Verstappen to win the championship this year. While it was certainly possible for Lando Norris to win the championship, Sports Illustrated still believed that “unseating Verstappen as the drivers champion [would be] a taller task.” They did, however, believe that Mclaren, another F1 team, could win the Constructors Championship, as the championship would go down to the reliability of not only each team’s car but also their drivers, and that “there [was] no doubt that the more reliable duo at [that] point [was] Norris and Piastri.” This has led to many speculations regarding the future of F1 talent and championships ahead; when will Max Verstappen’s domination end, and is Lando Norris a genuine title contender, or is his performance based on a fast car and luck?
The first race after the summer break was the Dutch Grand Prix, which also happened to be Max Verstappen’s home race. There were high hopes for Verstappen, as experts predicted that he would extend his championship lead at home. This, however, was the complete opposite of what happened. Instead of dominating the race, Lando Norris won by a margin of 22.9 seconds, the largest winning margin of the 2024 F1 season. While there were only small upgrades brought to the Netherlands according to the Mclaren team, Lando Norris, in a post-race interview, said that he believed that “small things make a big difference and a new rear wing probably helped me get past Max today. So little things like that definitely help you go forward.” This indicates that while his performance was certainly exceptional, it may have not been completely based on driver skill, but rather car performance that helped enhance his speed.
From the Dutch Grand Prix up to the Mexican Grand Prix, which was a duration of 6 races, Lando Norris cut down the lead of Max Verstappen from 78 points to a 47-point lead. While this may not seem like a lot, it was enough to keep Norris with a chance to win the championship, as a 47-point lead could have easily been cut down with two races, as a driver can gain a maximum of 26 points for each Grand Prix.
It was at the Sao Paulo (Brazil) Grand Prix that the true contenders of the title started showing, however. In a mix of bad luck and timing, along with some sprinkles of driver errors, Lando Norris was able to qualify on pole position (1st place), while Max Verstappen was further down the grid in a lowly 17th positioning, following engine penalties he received due to the swapping out of a few engine parts. During the formation lap, where drivers typically drive slowly while approaching their grip positions, difficult race conditions were already exemplified, as one of the drivers crashed into a wall before the race even started. The weather would only get worse throughout the race as more rain poured onto the track, with numerous drivers consistently making errors, such as spinning on track and crashing into walls, causing stoppages throughout the race that complicated the race order.
One driver, however, stood out, and it was Max Verstappen. He drove a nearly perfect race in the wet, a feat that Jolyon Palmer, a past F1 racer, believes is extraordinary, as he “can’t overstate how difficult [interlagos] is to drive in these conditions.” Additionally, Verstappen also overtook cars with ease from the starting laps, whilst making smart strategic calls on the race that eventually saw him leading, while Lando Norris ended his race in the 6th position.
In Las Vegas, the third-to-last race of the season, Max Verstappen sealed the 2024 Championship title by getting 5th place over Lando Norris’s 6th place, ensuring that he would win the title no matter the outcome of the final two races as Lando Norris could no longer catch up to Max Verstappen’s point count. While not as dominant as the 2023 season, Verstappen nonetheless proved that he was one of, if not the fastest driver on the grid, despite not having the fastest car over his competitors.
Seeing this result, questions about future Championships have arisen. While there is no doubt that there are numerous fast drivers competing in F1, questions regarding whether or not Lando Norris is a genuine title contender, and if he has a chance to win the 2025 drivers championship title, are still being discussed. Ultimately, only time will tell.
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