F1 2024 season awards: Best driver, biggest shock and worst race

That’s a wrap. After a record-breaking 24 races, the 2024 F1 season concluded on Sunday in Abu Dhabi with Lando Norris guiding McLaren to constructors’ glory.

What a topsy-turvy, constantly evolving season it has been. From Red Bull’s dominance on the track and turmoil in the paddock at the start of the season to multiple winners and riveting racing, there has been drama at every turn.

For the first time since 2021, too, we had a genuine title race, and while Max Verstappen ultimately claimed his fourth successive world championship, Norris pushed him to the final three races.

Seven drivers won races in total, with Norris and Oscar Piastri claiming their first F1 victories while Lewis Hamilton broke a near-1,000-day win duck with an emotional victory at the British Grand Prix.

Now, The Independent picks the winners and losers of a 2024 season that has already set the tone perfectly for potentially an all-time 2025 campaign.

Max Verstappen – It’s boring, I know. The world champion gets the top gong. But before November, the answer would have been Norris.

Yet the most impressive drive of Verstappen’s life in Brazil – from 17th on the grid to a win margin of 20 seconds – changed that. It virtually sealed the world title and, in the end, he claimed five more victories over the course of the season than the McLaren driver.

Four on the spin. Five in a row – in a Red Bull that no longer looks consistently quick – would put him among the greats.

Podium places: Lando Norris, Nico Hulkenberg

McLaren – It shouldn’t be understated how monumental an achievement this was for the papaya.

After the first four races, McLaren were third in total and already 72 points off Red Bull. But from Norris’s win in Miami onwards, they managed to take the fight to the reigning world champions and surpass them, as well as thwart the late challenge from Ferrari.

Full credit to team principal Andrea Stella and CEO Zak Brown for their hotshot driver lineup selection and their astute mechanical hiring, with ex-Red Bull engineer Rob Marshall playing a leading role in McLaren’s sudden surge in speed, particularly on the straights.

Podium places: Ferrari, Haas

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Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari – OK, a tad cheeky given it was prior to the 2024 season commencing, but nothing stunned the F1 (and sporting) world more than this transfer.

It was quite the day when Mercedes, astonishingly, did not deny reports surfacing in the Italian media that Hamilton had opted to leave his beloved Silver Arrows and end the most successful partnership in F1 history.

Inevitably, next year’s transfer was a constantly present topic in the background throughout the year. Did it impact Hamilton’s performance? Who knows. Either way, we all cannot wait to see how it unfolds.

Podium places: Adrian Newey leaving Red Bull/joining Aston Martin, Mercedes promoting Kimi Antonelli 2025

Daniel Ricciardo – This was a close-run thing between three drivers: Ricciardo, Sergio Perez and Logan Sargeant.

Sargeant’s axing after the Dutch Grand Prix had been some time coming and, given his consistent placing at the back of the grid, perhaps it wasn’t totally surprising.

Yet Ricciardo’s inability to produce even a glimpse of his prime speed was a mighty old shame. It was no secret that Perez’s Red Bull seat was up for grabs if he could. Therefore, the Aussie shades it.

Podium places: Sergio Perez, Logan Sargeant

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Lando Norris winning the Miami GP – This was a tough call. But Norris had been waiting for his first F1 victory for so long that, when it came, the jubilation was palpable.

It was also the first indication of McLaren’s rapid race-pace, setting up a thriller of a 2024 season.

Podium places: Lewis Hamilton wins British GP, Max Verstappen wins Brazil GP

Alex Albon, Canada – This was a spectacular manoeuvre.

Down the back straight at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Albon weaved to the outside to surge past Ricciardo, before slipping ahead of Esteban Ocon down the inside before the final chicane.

Exquisite car placement in between two cars.

Podium places: Max Verstappen, Brazil; Oscar Piastri, Azerbaijan

Ollie Bearman – A debut of dreams for the British teenager in Saudi Arabia, filling in seamlessly for Carlos Sainz to score points on his F1 debut for Ferrari.

From that moment on, his 2025 seat at Haas was virtually secured. He took his chance. It did not matter that he finished a lowly 12th in the F2 standings.

Podium places: Gabriel Bortoleto; Franco Colapinto

Brazilian Grand Prix – A championship-deciding, drama-inducing weekend in Sao Paulo.

Heavy rain meant we had qualifying on Sunday morning and, such is the grid that formed, it looked set to result in a massive points swing in Norris’s favour. There were also five crashes in helter-skelter qualifying minutes.

But the race proved to be a masterclass in wet-weather driving from Verstappen. While others slipped and slid across the racetrack and into the walls, the Dutchman was the epitome of perfection.

Podium places: British Grand Prix; Austrian Grand Prix

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Bahrain Grand Prix – For all the soap-opera off the track at the season-opener in Bahrain, it was business as usual for Red Bull on the tarmac. A one-two finish – and a dud of a race.

To much relief, it did not set the tone for the rest of the year.

On the podium: Japan, Monaco