Simply lovely. Max Verstappen officially won his fourth Formula 1 (F1) Driver’s Championship at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Nov. 23.
Verstappen clinched the title after placing fifth and gaining 10 points. Those last few points put him out of the range of second place driver, Lando Norris, who later could no longer earn enough points to beat Verstappen, even if he won the remaining two races.
Verstappen amassed most of his points at the beginning of the season with seven wins out of the first 10 races. This race season was a bit different for him. For the past two years Verstappen has been on a dominant run, winning almost every single grand prix, but this year he had more competition with seven total race winners. Yet, it didn’t stop him from achieving his fourth F1 World Championship.
The Constructors Championship battle, on the other hand, lasted until the last race of the season in Abu Dhabi. McLaren won the championship with its drivers snagging first and 10th place. For the most part of the season McLaren had led in points for Constructors with both Norris and his teammate Oscar Piastri winning multiple races. Ferrari’s best performance of the season came in the Austin Grand Prix where they got a one-two finish.
The 2024 F1 season had some shocking moments, such as when Alpine scored a massive points haul at the Brazilian Grand Prix getting second and third place, which was an impressive result as they usually finish toward the middle or back.
On the opposite end of the points spectrum, Kick Sauber has struggled to score this season, only mustering four points by the end of the 2024 season.
Major headlines of the 2024 F1 season were the huge driver moves to take place in 2025. The announcement that Lewis Hamilton, seven time world champion, will be moving to Ferrari after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Other notable driver moves include Kimi Antonelli’s F1 debut with Mercedes to replace Lewis Hamilton. Oliver Bearman is also debuting with Haas with teammate Esteban Ocon moving from Alpine to Haas. One of the most shocking grid changes is Carlos Sainz, a current Ferrari driver, to Williams. Nico Hulkenburg will be moving to Kick Sauber and Gabriel Bortoleto will debut to be his partner. New driver on the grid, Jack Doohan, will take Ocon’s spot in Alpine.
The biggest non-driver move of the season came with Adrian Newey, he was the former Chief Technical Officer (CTO) of Redbull decided to move to Aston Martin taking the position of technical director and also a co-owner.
The new driver moves changed the shape of the F1 landscape for the 2025 season and has led to many fan’s excitement for race one next year in Bahrain.
The 2024 F1 season was immensely entertaining for motorsport fans. The various different winners, the true racing and the driver drama all came together for a fun season. With Verstappen winning once again, fans are excited to see what the 2025 season has in store.
