Norris ends 2024 season on a high
Image: McLaren F1
It was a commanding victory for Lando Norris in the final round of the 2024 season. With his third career victory, the McLaren team secured its first world constructors championship of the century, the last time being 1998 with Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard.
It was also the weekend where we bid farewell to drivers including Valtteri Bottas, Kevin Magnussen, and Zhou Guanyu.
Let’s delve into the key moments of the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Qualifying
Image: Visa CashApp RB
The final qualifying session of the season wasn’t short of thrills and shocks as Alpine rookie Jack Doohan set a slow time, leaving the Australian plum last. The big news from Q1, however, was Lewis Hamilton exiting the session in a dismal P18. Hamilton’s final qualifying session for Mercedes ended prematurely after colliding with a bollard loosened by Kevin Magnussen.
The drivers out in Q1 were: Doohan, Colapinto, Hamilton, Zhou, and Albon.
Q2 was also came to a surprising end with Charles Leclerc becoming one of many victims of exceeding track limits, resulting the Monegasque’s time being deleted, dropping him to P14.
The drivers out in Q2 were: Magnussen, Leclerc, Stroll, Lawson, and Tsunoda.
Image: Haas F1 Team
The final qualifying session of the season had an absolutely shocking ending as the final runs saw Verstappen and Norris put in quick laps. These were abruptly followed by Pierre Gasly and Nico Hulkenberg, who’d both put their respective midfield cars on provisional pole.
Norris and Piastri flexed the one-lap muscles of the McLaren MCL38 for the final time as they secured a front row lockout, with Carlos Sainz rounding out the top three. Hulkenberg’s stunning lap saw him line up an impressive fourth in his last race for the Haas team, whilst Gasly qualified sixth and Bottas finish an incredible ninth, ahead of Sergio Perez.
Image: McLaren F1
Your top ten for qualifying were: Norris, Piastri, Sainz, Hulkenberg, Verstappen, Gasly, Russell, Alonso, Bottas, and Perez.
More than two decades in the making
Image: McLaren F1
McLaren didn’t really seem like the constructors favourites heading into the season. This was particularly due to Red Bull’s impeccable form in 2023, with its drivers winning 21 out of the 22 rounds.
If you take into account the poor form McLaren displayed at the start of last season in Bahrain, their rise to success has been an absolute miracle when considering the team’s recent history.
From the infamous Honda partnership to career-ending financial troubles, the crew from Woking have been through it all.
After a restructure of the team last year following the arrival of ex-Ferrari bigwig Andrea Stella, the team’s results skyrocketed and started to bite into the huge gap Red Bull had created between itself and the rest of the grid since 2021.
Image: McLaren F1
With Norris starting on pole for the final race of the 2024 season, all he had to do was to win the race and the constructors championship would go to Woking. The young Brit dominated the race whilst his teammate’s night was shattered by a first corner collision with Verstappen.
Norris’ win was good enough for the championship which meant McLaren won the constructors title for the first time in the 21st Century.
What’s even more remarkable is that neither of McLaren’s drivers were born the last time the team won a constructors championship, with Norris being born in 1999, and Piastri in 2001 – that’s a pretty cool stat.
Norris on winning the 2024 WCC:
“I’m so proud of everyone – it’s been a lovely journey, and to end the season like this is perfect, so just congrats and big thank you to everyone in McLaren, everyone in papaya, everyone who supported us this year because it’s been a tough one. For us to win a constructors’ after 26 years is pretty special."
Clipped wings
Image: Red Bull
Despite Max Verstappen clinching his fourth consecutive drivers title in Las Vegas this season, the Red Bull team’s form has been somewhat of a letdown in comparison to last season.
With Verstappen making a few schoolboy errors including his Lap 1 crash with Piastri and contact with Norris in Mexico, it seems the Verstappen of old has resurfaced, with fans showing varying levels of support for the Dutchman.
A mixture of a lack of pace and lacklustre qualifying performances from Sergio Perez meant that the team from Milton Keynes was out of contention for the constructors title, leaving Ferrari and McLaren to battle it out for the championship.
Verstappen’s race was dismal as the crash with Piastri on Lap 1 meant he had to serve a ten second time penalty, which pushed him down the order, leaving him to rescue his race, finishing a disappointing P6.
Sergio Perez’s final race for the Red Bull team ended in tragedy as a spin meant he was out of the race and what could be his final career race ended in a DNF.
These results meant that Red Bull didn’t have the finish it was expecting, but Verstappen’s fourth title still remains an impressive feat.
Who’s cutting onions?
Image: Stake F1 Team
The final round of the 2024 season saw the departure of many names and numerous driver switches/transfers that will undoubtedly change the face of Formula 1.
Among the leavers was ten-time race winner Valtteri Bottas, who aided Lewis Hamilton to his most recent driver title with Mercedes. Joining the Silver Arrows in 2017 to replace Nico Rosberg, the Finn delivered on his talent that he displayed flashes of during his stint with Williams from 2013 to 2016.
Bottas left the team in 2021 after it was decided that George Russell was a better fit for the team, leaving Bottas to join Alfa Romeo, now known as Stake Sauber.
““It’s been a difficult season, I would say the most difficult of my F1 career””
Although the Finn finished his final F1 season pointless, there is good news. He’ll return to the Mercedes outfit as its new reserve driver, strengthening the already stacked squad of Russell and Kimi Antonelli for 2025.
Another driver that we will bid farewell to will be Kevin Magnussen, who’s had a very tumultuous F1 career. Joining the grid in 2014 with McLaren, the Dane finished P2 on his debut, showcasing his undeniable talent.
Image: Formula One
Despite his speed, Magnussen was dropped by Ron Dennis at the end of the 2014 season, leading him to take a year off before joining the Renault team in 2016, which was rebranded from Lotus.
A few lacklustre seasons later and Magnussen switched to Haas in 2017, where he took the team’s highest ever finish, fourth at the 2018 Austrian Grand Prix.
Although Magnussen will be remembered as an accident prone driver, his brilliant defending and aggression was something to behold. An all-round lovely chap, best of luck with everything K-Mag!
The other drivers leaving F1 include Zhou Guanyu and Franco Colapinto, who both had varying levels of success in their short careers. For Zhou, it was all about being the first ever Chinese F1 driver, and having a stellar maiden season in 2022. Colapinto’s few races in F1 will be remembered as exceptional, as he scored a great deal of points for a struggling Williams team.
The final driver that’ll leave F1 in 2024 is Sergio Perez. Now, we’ve been very critical of Perez in the past, but it’s important to remember that he’s the most successful Mexican driver of all time and the only Red Bull driver to help score a 1-2 in the drivers championship in 2023.
After a disastrous string of performances, Perez found himself at risk of losing his drive to younger Red Bull juniors such as Liam Lawson. Now, after not finishing on the podium since the fifth round of the season in Shanghai, the team dropped the Mexican from the team.
With his future still unclear, Sergio Perez will go down in history as the driver who helped Max Verstappen win his maiden championship in 2021, and as the driver who’s driven some incredible races including Monza 2012, when he passed a rapid Fernando Alonso at Ferrari’s home race, Sakhir 2020, where he took that fabulous win after a first-lap spin. And who can forget that brilliant drive in Singapore 2022, where Checo dominated the race despite being given a five-second time penalty.
Perez on his F1 career:
“It has also been an honour to race alongside Max as a team mate all these years and to share in our success. A special thank you to the fans around the world, and especially to the Mexican fans for your unwavering support every day. We’ll meet again soon. And remember… never give up.”
Despite the end of his career being so bittersweet, we’re sure Formula One will miss him. Thank you for everything, Checo!
And that’s it for another action-packed season here at Race Reaction. Thank you all for tuning into our podcast episodes and reading our articles. We really appreciate all your support and cannot wait to show you what we have in store for you. Keep an eye out for some exciting editorials/podcast episodes during the winter break and if that’s not enough, listen to our end of season review below. We’ll see you on the grid in 2025!
Final race classification
1 - Lando NORRIS
2 - Carlos SAINZ
3 - Charles LECLERC
4 - Lewis HAMILTON
5 - George RUSSELL
6 - Max VERSTAPPEN
7 - Pierre GASLY
8 - Nico HULKENBERG
9 - Fernando ALONSO
10 - Oscar PIASTRI
11 - Alexander ALBON
12 - Yuki TSUNODA
13 - ZHOU Guanyu
14 - Lance STROLL
15 - Jack DOOHAN
16 - Kevin MAGNUSSEN
17 - Liam LAWSON
DNF - Valtteri BOTTAS
DNF - Franco COLAPINTO
DNF - Sergio PEREZ
