F1 2024 - Opinions

[MUFC]

After Miami the season turned into how we want F1 to be. Different race winners, unpredictable and hard to predict a winner or podium. A few questions on the season, obviously we'll all have our own opinions.

Driver of the season? - I'll go with Charles which may surprise people. Simply for being in the shout for second, come the end of the season. From the lower end, I'll give a joint award to Gasly and Hulkenburg.

Biggest disappointment? Going for Norris, I know he has the inexperience of being in a title fight. Truth is he should have been closer than he was. Loads of poor starts, yet when the title was wrapped up for Max. Since then his starts have been much better, this tells me that he struggled under the pressure of the title fight.

Race of the season? - Silverstone, simply because Lewis got his first win for years. But the race was good, places changes at the front as well as changing conditions.

Best overtake? Albon in Canada, double overtake in the rain.

[Stan]

Driver of the season - Similar, either Leclerc or Hulkenberg.

Disappointment - Perez. Just purely underwhelming and a space-filler as opposed to providing any competition to Max's rivals, let alone Max himself. Difficult to give it to Norris for me, as at least he was getting in the position to challenge Max after the break, and perhaps it took McLaren by surprise that other teams became more competitive so they were fighting against them as well as Max individually. 

Race of the season - Probably because it's more recent but Sao Paulo was quite eventful. 

Overtake - I can't remember if it was Piastri or Norris in Baku but that one stands out as well as Albon's.  

[RandoEFC+]

DOTS - Verstappen (I know it's boring but he had to take every opportunity to stay clear in the WDC with a car that was usually 3rd fastest or occasionally 2nd fastest). Honourable mention for Hulkenberg.

Disappointment - Daniel Ricciardo (All he had to do was beat Tsunoda and he was getting a probably not really deserved second chance in a top seat at Red Bull. He wasn't even close to doing so). Honourable mention for Aston Martin in general. I'm not really disappointed by Perez because I didn't expect much from him in the first place.

Race of the Season - Silverstone (So many changes of lead and a huge story for Hamilton to get his first win since 2021 on home soil in his last season with Mercedes).

Overtake - Piastri on Leclerc for the win in Baku.

[Panflute]

Driver of the season - The only real and boring answer here is Max as he is on a level that no other driver can touch at the moment. However, to make it more interesting I'll say Lando Norris. People were quick to dismiss him wholesale after the failed title bid, and yes, he does fall short of Max and Max would've won the championship if he drove for McLaren. But I'm putting it into perspective by comparing him to Piastri. Many, including myself, expected Piastri to slowly start outperforming Lando this season. There were indeed races where Piastri had the better of him, and there were some races where Lando was favored due to the WDC fight. But when you look at the results over 24 races, Norris obliterated Piastri. 21-3 in quali, and 16-8 in race position, 8 pole positions to 0. People now write off Lando after the failed title bid, but forget that Charles  Leclerc crumbled under the pressure just has hard if not harder when he had the joint fastest car in the first half of 2022. Last year many said Lando would be outperformed by Oscar, and Lando stepped up his game, especially in quali. This year people say Lando hasn't got what it takes to be a champion. If he can take his wheel-to-wheel to the next level, I think he'll be the 2025 WDC (and ofc if McLaren can maintain its can within a competitive window all throughout next season).

Disappointment - I don't think Pérez was particularly disappointing given the writing was on the wall there. He was always going to tumble down the order once the car stopped being dominant. In terms of teams, the disappointment of the season has to be Red Bull. We all thought they were gonna sweep 2024 and they ended 3rd in the constructors. In terms of disappointing drivers, I'm gonna say Fernando Alonso. I love Fernando but it was sad to see that, along with the decline of Aston Martin, he was right back to his old complaining self. I hope I'm wrong, but this time it seems like the fire is gone for good. I expect 2025 to be his final season in the sport.

Race of the season - Brazil easily. Changing conditions, drama all weekend, red flags in quali and the race, confusion about the rules, Stroll with hands-down the funniest DNF of the season, 2 Alpines on the podium, the WDC being decided in 1 corner, and a career-defining drive by Verstappen. The narrative of Silverstone and Hamilton's resurgence was great too, but I feel like Brazil 2024 is the race we'll still be talking about 10 years down the line.

Overtake - Piastri on Leclerc in Baku. Ok, maybe it was aided by the flexiwing (Baku was the race that exposed it), but it was a ballsy all-or-nothing move that definitively established Piastri as an amazing driver.

[RandoEFC+]

People really under-rate the role that luck played in Norris' season, and the role that Max having a 60-80 point lead in the championship played in their wheel to wheel battles. Max was basically able to drive in an aggressive fashion because if they both ended up with damage then he'd keep his massive lead and be one race closer to the end of the season. Whereas Norris increasingly throughout the season when he came up against Max knew he had to get past cleanly and couldn't risk any contact. It'll be interesting to see that dynamic next season when Max is unlikely to race into an unassailable lead.

People might criticise Norris for being near Max on track in the first place when he had a faster car. There's a case for that but it's also exaggerated. The McLaren was usually the fastest package throughout the season but rarely by more than about a tenth of a second. They clearly had problems with their operating windows as well. The car was often clear in qualifying, then took some time to get going in race trim and on certain tyre compounds before finishing strongly. The amount of Max and Lewis fans across social media who seem to hate Norris for comments he's made about their idols making out that the McLaren has been some sort of Mercedes 2014/Red Bull 2023 rocket-ship this season has been absurd. It's been the car that's had its nose in front for most of the season in a very tight pack and nothing more. Yes an elite driver would have made more of it but the overall narrative is inaccurate.

Norris ended up looking miles behind Max as a driver this season because the fact is he didn't manage to close the gap really at all over about 12 races when he had a faster car. If he just fixes his starts and is more aggressive when defending position, as long as McLaren improve the way they operate with strategy a bit and he can continue to keep his team-mate at arm's length, that should be plenty to put him as favourite for the championship next season.

[Panflute]

^The truth on that is somewhere in the middle. McLaren were not clear of the rest of the field by half a second like the dominant cars of the past, but they did have a faster car than at least Red Bull in the vast majority of cases. Max did have an advantage in being able to defend more aggressively, but for example at the US Grand Prix Lando 100% should have passed Max but didn't because his attacks were all too predictable and Max defended perfectly. It also exposed McLaren's poor race management as they just pretended a 5 second penalty wouldn't come their way when every commentator said it would the moment the incident happened. That had absolutely nothing to do with luck, but with Max/Red Bull outdriving and outsmarting the entirety of McLaren.

McLaren in general just have a chronic issue with extracting the most out of a Sunday. Silverstone and Monza were both lost on strategy, and even races they did win, they fumbled a 1-2 or put a damper on the result by confusing team orders and overall poor communication. Will Joseph in particular is terrible at communicating efficiently. All these things combined made it so that Max kept finishing ahead of Lando when he really had no business to.

Looking at it plainly, Max still won races when the car wasn't completely there (Emilia Romagna, Spain, Canada), and Lando has so far only won when the car was unbeatable on pace. Part of that is down to Red Bull having a far better pitwall than McLaren, but part of that is also down to Lando himself. That he nearly ruined his own race 3 times while being under 0 pressure in Singapore also says that, individually, he's not quite on Max's level yet.

That all being said, I don't think many drivers would've done a better job in Lando's position. Maybe Charles Leclerc since he's very good at going wheel-to-wheel with Max (and anyone else), but he also cracked in 2022. Maybe Lewis even though he was error-prone this season. But now that Lando has had a taste, I reckon he'll put up much more of a fight next season. For all the credit Charles gets for his 1-lap pace, Norris is right up there in terms of scary quali performances. So if McLaren can more reliably convert poles into wins, Lando will be tough to beat.

[Azeem]

Overrated sport

[MUFC]

Everybody knows that overtaking Max is risky especially if a DNF for you both affects you kore it does Max due to his lead. There was unjustified hate against Norris, people do have to have a balanced opinion when being critical. But his starts were really poor, and it wasn't just from pole either. Good starts from pole would have made a difference, McLaren were good at the tail end of races, on lower fuel loads. But they were also really good in clean air. I hope he gets it right next season, and if Max is challenging with him. He had a lead which will enable him to take more risk, and be able to DNF if need be.

[Stan]

3 hours ago, Azeem said:

Overrated sport

Great contribution, cheers. 

[MUFC]

6 hours ago, Azeem said:

Overrated sport

Nothing wrong with Kabaddi.

[Azeem]

F1 drivers are also not athletes. Saying they go through rigorous training isn't enough. Pilots and astronauts also go through stuff but that doesn't make them athletes.

Surgeons have great hand eye coordination but doesn't mean they can handle a hockey stick. 

[Stan]

3 hours ago, Azeem said:

F1 drivers are also not athletes. Saying they go through rigorous training isn't enough. Pilots and astronauts also go through stuff but that doesn't make them athletes.

Surgeons have great hand eye coordination but doesn't mean they can handle a hockey stick. 

Who calls F1 drivers athletes?

They're in very good physical shape. They have to be very fit and able. They are sportspeople.

[Azeem]

1 hour ago, Stan said:

Who calls F1 drivers athletes?

Google 'Are F1 drivers' and it will automatically fill the rest.

It is a commonly discussed question. 

[Stan]

1 hour ago, Azeem said:

Google 'Are F1 drivers' and it will automatically fill the rest.

It is a commonly discussed question. 

Oh okay then. That's the end of the debate.

Great chat.