F1 awards: Our top driver, best team, more after historic season

Formula 1's longest-ever season has come to a conclusion, and there's much to work out following an epic campaign that featured more than a handful of race winners and a new constructors' champion. Here, we hand out awards - some positive, some negative - to sum up the year's biggest moments.

Best driver: Max Verstappen

🥈 Charles Leclerc
🥉 Lando Norris

Verstappen lost the advantage of having the fastest car following the Miami Grand Prix. Despite inferior machinery, the Dutch driver never lost his advantage at the top of the drivers' standings. Verstappen didn't place worse than sixth in any of his finishes despite McLaren's resurgence, Ferrari's late rise, and a sometimes quick Mercedes popping up, showcasing just how insurmountable an opponent he is to overcome across a lengthy 24-race calendar. If his 2023 title was for the record books, his 2024 championship season was one for his legacy.

Leclerc silenced critics who had unfairly labeled him a one-lap specialist. Ferrari finally delivered a race car instead of a qualifying car, allowing Leclerc to shine, and boy, did he ever, with three wins and a career-best 13 podiums. Out of his 23 finishes, 21 came in the top five. There was barely any variance in Leclerc's driving, which bodes well for championship aspirations in the future.

Norris made mistakes, but to be fair, how many others wouldn't if unexpectedly thrown into their first title fight against a driver like Verstappen? The McLaren pilot outclassed teammate Oscar Piastri fairly comfortably and brought constructors' glory back to the outfit, ending a 26-year drought. He finished with four wins, eight poles, and 13 podiums. Crucially, Norris converted two of his last four poles into wins, perhaps signaling he's put his Lap 1 problems behind him.

Biggest disappointment: Sergio Perez

Red Bull handed Sergio Perez an extension in June in hopes that the contract security would translate into on-track results. It seemed to do the exact opposite. Perez scored only 49 points over the last 18 races, and the results only worsened as the season progressed. From the summer break onward, the Mexican pilot was even outscored by Alpine's Pierre Gasly and finished level on points with Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso. Perez's slump was a huge factor in Red Bull losing the constructors' championship.

Most underrated driver: Yuki Tsunoda

🥈 Pierre Gasly
🥉 Nico Hulkenberg

Tsunoda continues to grow into his own with 2024 being the next step in his development. It's a shame he seems stuck in Red Bull's junior team with no real chance of promotion, as he's completed every task assigned to him. He came out best against Daniel Ricciardo and then put a considerable gap between him and Liam Lawson. Tsunoda finished 12th in the standings with nine point finishes but also made 11 Q3 appearances - tied for most among drivers in the bottom five teams - and went a combined 18-6 in qualifying versus his teammates.

It's often not about how you start but how you finish. Gasly stormed to a 10th-place finish in the drivers' standings thanks to some big-time drives in the final parts of the campaign. In Brazil, he became one of only four drivers this season to end up on the podium after starting 10th or higher. Then in Las Vegas, he dazzled, qualifying third before retiring in the race. And to cap it off, he finished fifth in Qatar and seventh in Abu Dhabi, powering Alpine to sixth in the constructors' standings.

Hulkenberg often doesn't get the credit he deserves, as most of his top performances get lost in the mix of the midfield. But, the Haas driver's peaks and overall consistency in 2024 represented some of his best work in years. He ripped off back-to-back sixth-place finishes in Austria and Silverstone, made Q3 11 times, and ended his year in supreme style by qualifying on the second row in Abu Dhabi.

Best car: MCL38

It may not have started the year as the best, but from Miami onward, McLaren's MCL38 was the car to beat. Aside from an outlier in Las Vegas, the MCL38 was consistently in the mix for race wins and competitive on almost all tracks, no matter the layout. Its strengths included a wide setup window, tire degradation, and a perfect harmony between one-lap pace and race trim.

Best factory: McLaren

McLaren wouldn't be the constructors' champion if not for the workers in Woking. McLaren's technical group delivered the upgrade of the season, perhaps even of this ground-effect era, in Miami, which launched Norris and Piastri to the front of the field. The Andrea Stella-led team was one of the few that dodged any correlation gremlins, as all the team's subsequent upgrades seemingly worked as well on the track as they did in the wind tunnel.

Best pit wall: Red Bull

If there's one area where Red Bull still excelled, it was at the pit wall. The Bulls' strategy department demonstrated just how sharp its sword was after all the years of scraping for points. Principal of strategy Hannah Schmitz knew when to press the right buttons, while the communication between race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase and Verstappen was especially key in wet-weather races such as Montreal, Silverstone, and Sao Paulo.

Best drive: Verstappen's comeback in Brazil

The drivers' championship seemed within reach for Norris after Verstappen was slated to start 17th in Interlagos. But, despite a mountain of pressure and all the odds stacked against him, Verstappen went out and proved why he's now a four-time world champion, weathering the treacherous conditions better than anyone and storming to victory. It was only the fifth time in F1 history that a driver has won from that far back, making this an obvious choice for drive of the season.

Best race: British GP

We're going with Silverstone for the best race of 2024. This race, affected by wet conditions, saw many swings before it culminated in Hamilton ending a winless drought that spanned 56 races and nearly 1,000 days. The cherry on top was that he did in front of his passionate fan base at the British Grand Prix. This race had it all; four different leaders, six drivers fighting for podiums spots at times, and an emotional, fairy-tale conclusion that seemed even too perfect for Hollywood.

Best overtake: Piastri's race-winning lunge in Baku

Talk about sending it from a long way back. Piastri's race-winning move on Leclerc in Baku had us on the edge of our seats, as he not only pulled off a very opportunistic lunge but also exited well enough to maintain the lead.

Biggest surprise: The season itself

If you polled every member of the paddock back in Bahrain, we'd bet none would have said they expected a season like this. For the first time ever, Formula 1 had seven drivers with multiple race wins. There was also a constructors' battle that went down to the last lap in Abu Dhabi, two first-time race winners in Norris and Piastri, and a multitude of feel-good moments for drivers like Leclerc and Hamilton. With no driver or constructor able to string together three consecutive race wins, the parity and competitiveness in 2024 were off the charts.

Biggest WTF moment: Lance Stroll getting beached in Brazil

Stroll had a few choices when he was stranded on the side of the track on the formation lap in Brazil. Driving into the gravel despite having clear track around him wasn't an option anyone had considered, but leave it to the Canadian to find a new way to shock us. It was a head-scratching decision, though wanting to clock out of a work day before it's even started is a feeling many can surely relate to.

Best quote: Toto Wolff calls Christian Horner a 'yapping little terrier'

We're a little disappointed it took until the final race of the season for Wolff and Horner to reignite their war of words. But, it was well worth the wait with the Mercedes boss calling his rival a "yapping little terrier" and then Horner clapping back by saying he would rather be a terrier than a wolf. Some feuds are just meant to last forever.

Worst send-off: Daniel Ricciardo's awkward exit

Many drivers said farewell in 2024. Hamilton had an emotional goodbye with Mercedes, Carlos Sainz ended his Ferrari tenure with a push for championship gold, and even Guanyu Zhou got do doughnuts in Abu Dhabi. That's why it was such a shame that a figure like Ricciardo was simply shushed away from the grid after Singapore. There was no confirmation of his departure, only whispers that grew until it became apparent to everyone that he would be walked off the plank. There was no coming to grips with his exit, just anxiousness, and then a fastest-lap parting gift. The eight-time race winner deserved better.