Race Recap + How Teams Performed | 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

The 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix just took place and here are some key highlights:

• McLaren has won its first constructor’s title since 1998. This was the 9th title secured by the Woking team.

• Max Verstappen caused a collision, received a penalty, and talked shit to the stewards. As usual, the Dutch driver keeping the race weekends spicy.

• Carlos Sainz finished P2 in his last race for Ferrari while his teammate finished an impressive P3 after starting from P19.

• The 2024 F1 season finale also featured Lewis’ last race with Mercedes. He wrapped it up with an impressive drive from P16 to P4, one ahead of his teammate George Russell.

• Pierre Gasly continued his run of great finishes to bring his Alpine an impressive P7, doing more than enough to get the French outfit P6 in the constructors.

There is plenty more to talk about.

Let’s go through each of the teams and analyze how they performed in the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, beginning with the worst finishers and ending with the highest scorers of the weekend, starting with Williams Mercedes.

1. Williams Mercedes – 0 points

• Alexander Albon (Started 18th, Finished 11th)

• Franco Colapinto (Started 20th, DNF)

The Williams were completely off-pace this weekend, thanks to the myriad of crashes that have prevented the team from investing in any kind of upgrades. They still struggled to pull off a clean weekend in the season finale, although the DNF wasn’t Colapinto’s fault.

However, it has almost become mandatory that a Williams retires from the race, so it’s great to see that tradition being upheld no matter what.

2. RB Honda RBPT – 0 points

• Yuki Tsunoda (Started 11th, Finished 12th)

• Liam Lawson (Started 12th, DNF)

Vcarb has been in the backfoot since Qatar. Both the cars were knocked out in Q2 and lined up 11th and 12th on the grid for the main race. It was pretty clear that they weren’t gonna score any points considering drivers such as Charles and Lewis were starting behind them.

It was kind of a null weekend for them because they have been out of contention for the battle for P6 in the constructor’s since the Qatar Grand Prix. 

What’s interesting now is who will be upgraded to that Red Bull seat. Yuki Tsunoda has performed really well alongside Liam Lawson. If I were to give an advantage to someone, I would pick the Kiwi, considering the Japanese driver is in the team due to Honda, and Lawson is the next project of Helmut Marko.

3. Kick Sauber Ferrari – 0 points

• Zhou Guanyu (Started 15th, Finished 13th)

• Valtteri Bottas (Started 9th, DNF)

Nothing much to say about these blokes really other than the fact that Bottas’ DNF was extremely heartbreaking. Dude pulled everything he could from that tractor and lined up P9 on the grid. 

The unfortunate crash with Perez earned him a 10-second penalty, which basically ruined his race, and the misjudged defensive maneuver against K-Mag was the final nail in the coffin. 

In retrospect, it would have been quite difficult for the Finnish driver to, well, finish in the points considering a handful of faster cars were behind him and were on a charge.

Zhou did his own race. Showed bursts of performance here and there. We all knew that lightning doesn’t strike twice so, glad that he brought the car home a couple of places ahead of where he started.

4. Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes – 2 points

• Fernando Alonso (Started 8th, Finished 9th)

• Lance Stroll (Started 13th, Finished 14th)

Very happy for Fernando Alonso. Finished the last couple of races in the points. It was looking difficult considering Charles and Lewis passed him, but Piastri’s misfortune really helped the 2x world champion to bring the car home a respectable P9.

Nothing much to say about Lance Stroll, as usual. Finished one place behind where he started even after all that chaos in the opening stages of the race. If Lawrence Stroll genuinely wants to put up a stronger fight, he should have fired his son a couple of years ago. The second best time is now.

5. Alpine Renault – 6 points

• Pierre Gasly (Started 5th, Finished 7th)

• Jack Doohan (Started 17th, Finished 15th)

Pierre delivered a kickass performance again. He finished a couple of places behind where he started because Leclerc and Hamilton, who were on faster cars, overtook him. Maybe he could have retained that place if there was a safety car or something.

Gasly did more than enough to secure P6 for Alpine in the constructor’s standings. Tell you what, that would have happened even if he finished outside the points. However, I am happy that the last couple of races have been stellar for the French outfit, considering they were nowhere near P6 a few race weekends ago.

Speaking of Doohan, it was just yet another practice session for the rookie. Stayed out of trouble and brought the car home, so the initial signs are good.

6. Haas Ferrari – 4 points

• Nico Hülkenberg (Started 7th, Finished 8th)

• Kevin Magnussen (Started 14th, Finished 16th)

After the qualifying session, I thought for a second that maybe Hulk could score a podium. Then the three-place grid penalty hit and everything shattered. It was perfectly set up, though, particularly K-Mag’s strategic removal of the bollard butchered Lewis’ quali lap.

To be honest, it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. They had a decent race pace, but closing a 5-point gap to Alpine (going into the race weekend) was a tough ask, especially if you are a midfield team.

Combined with a poor quali for the Danish driver and a bunch of terrible incidents such as the slow pitstop and collision with Bottas, they were never in contention for P6 really.

7. Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT – 8 points

• Max Verstappen (Started 4th, Finished 6th)

• Sergio Pérez (Started 10th, DNF)

Max Verstappen did his best to keep the race thrilling for us fans, despite securing his fourth world title a couple of races ago. After making George Russell cry by threatening to put him in the wall, the Formula 1 legend took Oscar Piastri out of contention from the first corner.

The stewards, then, awarded him a 10-second time penalty, his last in the 2024 F1 season, which is vocally mocked on the radio, giving more fuel to Netflix to make this season of Drive to Survive even more spicy. Anyway, he finished 6th, a pretty decent recovery.

Sergio Perez may lose his seat by the end of this year after yet another abysmal performance. Yes, the collision with Valterri wasn’t his fault in particular, but let’s be honest, he wasn’t scoring a damn point anyway. I hope he protects his legacy, whatever is left of it anyway, and leaves the sport with his head held high.

In retrospect, it would have been dope if Red Bull had played musical chairs with Yuki, Liam, and Sergio for the final triple-header because the end results would have been the same and it would have been entertaining, but it is what it is.

8. Mercedes – 22 points

• Lewis Hamilton (Started 16th, Finished 4th)

• George Russell (Started 6th, Finished 5th)

The Silver Arrows had a phenomenal weekend. They finished right behind the McLaren of Lando and both Ferraris. If Max didn’t have that moment with Piastri, they would have finished P6 and P7. Piastri was fast af and it was nearly impossible to overtake Mad Max.

Speaking of the performance of both the drivers, Lewis’ final race was great. He started way behind in P16 and had a great recovery drive. His last overtake against his own teammate was absolute cinema.

Going into the weekend, both Hamilton and Russell were dead even on points in their three years together. It was pretty satisfying to see that the 7x world champ inched away from Russell despite having a poor season and a horrendous start to this weekend.

9. McLaren Mercedes – 26 points

• Lando Norris (Started 1st, Finished 1st)

• Oscar Piastri (Started 2nd, Finished 10th)

The customer team of Mercedes has won their first constructor’s championship since 1998.

They could have won one in 2007 but the $100 million Spygate scandal bit them in the arse.

Either way, great performance from Lando Norris. I was fully expecting him to bottle the race start but fortunately, he didn’t. He also didn’t bottle the race start in the Qatar Sprint, where he started from the pole. 

I like this version of Norris. Hopefully, he will deal with pressure well in the following season and if the Woking outfit produces a good car, he surely can challenge for the world title better in 2025.

Oscar Piastri, on the other hand, had a scrappy weekend. I agree that the collision with Max wasn’t his fault, but rear-ending Colapinto certainly was. He could have avoided that 10-second time penalty and have made a better recovery.

But it didn’t matter in the end and the boys ended up securing the championship anyway. 

10. Ferrari – 33 points

• Carlos Sainz (Started 3rd, Finished 2nd)

• Charles Leclerc (Started 19th, Finished 3rd)

The men in red did everything right. From not bottling the start to trying to stay as close as possible to Lando throughout the race was perfect. Charles deserved the DOTD award for a commanding drive from P19 and finishing on the final step of the podium.

It was also quite emotional seeing the smooth operator on the podium celebrating with Lando and Charles. I listened to his episode in the F1 Beyond the Grid podcast and, damn, the man went through hell this year and came out on the top. From losing his Ferrari seat to sitting out in a race for his appendix operation, he had a tough season but still managed to finish in a high.

For a moment in the first stint, it appeared that they may get closer to McLaren and snatch the championship away but Norris’ pace was too much for them. Hopefully, with Lewis, they can put up a better fight right from the beginning and go home with something.

Conclusion: The 2024 F1 Season Was Amazing

Fortunately, the 2024 season was not like the one before. We got interesting battles but almost all of them were predictable.

It was certain from early on that Norris and McLaren weren’t on the level of Max and Red Bull respectively on corresponding championship-winning elements. Lando has miles to go ahead to perform at the level of Max. McLaren is still operating with a midfield-team mindset, although they seem to have adapted positively to that toward the end of the season.

If Checo wasn’t so terrible the whole year, they could be challenging harder for the constructor’s title, because Ferrari always makes the worst out of the chaos, McLaren is reactive over proactive, and Red Bull is a master at executing ambitious yet surprising strategies.

The only unpredictable thing was the battle for P6 because no one, until Brazil, had suspected it to be Alpine. Haas were consistent throughout the year and Vcarb had a more competitive car early on in the season but they had an Australian problem.

You could say that a bunch of driver moves were surprising.

Overall, I would say that the season, although better than 2023, lacked the unpredictability in the truest sense. It was evident after Las Vegas that Ferrari couldn’t overcome that 20+ points gap in the following two races considering how strong the McLarens were.

Thankfully, there was Lando’s 10s stop-and-go penalty in Qatar and Piastri spinning out of contention, both caused by Max Verstappen, again, entertaining us even after winning the world championship, which made it fun.

Now, for next year, it looks like we will be in for a treat. Hopefully, everybody, including barriers and drivers 30 meters ahead of him (like Fernando was), keeps turning into Russell and Ferrari is at least decent in strategies. 

This will make them all competitive and maybe make a four-way fun-filled title fight (Lewis, Charles, Max, and Lando).

Maybe Mercedes will give Russell a better package and we can make that five. Obviously, there will always be the second-seat drama within Red Bull.

Until next time,

Tara