Photo by Song Haiyuan/MB Media/Getty Images
How the 2024 F1 season can be told through gestures
The beauty of the 2024 Formula One season to date can be told and described in many ways.
Perhaps even many gestures.
We can start with a smile. Daniel Ricciardo’s smile might be the most famous on the entire grid, but that smile had disappeared earlier in the season. It was not present when Riccardo spoke with the media on Thursday ahead of the Miami Grand Prix, but it returned when Ricciardo delivered a stunning fourth-place finish in the F1 Shootout ahead of the Miami Grand Prix and held on to that position to finish fourth in the F1 Sprint Race itself.
That smile was certainly there when Ricciardo came to speak with the media after that finish. It was still there when Ricciardo came over to speak with the media after a more difficult qualifying session for the Miami Grand Prix itself, as the glow from his F1 Sprint Race result was still on everyone’s mind.
The story of the 2024 F1 season can be told through an embrace, such as the one shared by Oliver Bearman and his father when the young driver climbed out of the SF-24 after making his F1 debut in place of an ailing Carlos Sainz Jr. at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. Not only did Bearman finish the race, and not only did the young phenom finish the race in the points, but he held off both Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton down the stretch to finish seventh.
Speaking of those two Britons. ..
Another chapter of the 2024 F1 season to date can be told through a trio of exhales felt around the paddock, and the world. There was the one mere hours after Ricciardo’s trademark smile returned in Miami when Lando Norris shrugged off the “Lando No-Wins” moniker that had been put on his back to capture his maiden F1 victory in Miami.
And could finally exhale on the top step of the podium.
There was a similar exhale a few weeks later in Monte Carlo. After so many heartbreaking finishes and disappointments in his home race, Charles Leclerc finally broke through with a victory in the Monaco Grand Prix, on the streets where he learned to drive as a child, and delivered an exhale felt throughout the Principality. A hometown prince was finally king.
Then there was Silverstone.
The site of the British Grand Prix, where Lewis Hamilton had tasted victory eight times before. But on this Sunday it was different. It was not a win that came amidst a string of victories and championships, a win that came during a period of Silver Arrows dominance.
No, it was a win that came after years of wondering if Hamilton would ever win again. But on that Sunday another favorite son and hometown hero, one of the greatest drivers the sport will ever know, after nearly 1000 days without a win, reached the top step at Silverstone.
His home race, and his final home race with Mercedes. Years of doubt, of wondering if it would ever happen again, erased with one incredible drive, and one emphatic exhale.
There are more gestures, of course, that can tell the story of the first half of the season. Such as a smile exchanged by Norris and his friend — and rival — Max Verstappen at Silverstone in the cooldown room after the British Grand Prix. Or Verstappen’s hand on Norris’ shoulder in the moments right after the race ended. Quiet tributes between friends a week after their sudden rivalry resulted in the wheel touch in Austria heard around the sport, and questions of what would happen next.
What happened next? A return to hard and fair racing, and the idea that a title fight could be coming.
Ultimately, the gesture that most tells the story of the first 12 race weekend of the 2024 F1 campaign is a wink. A wink that was delivered by Ferrari Team Principal Frederic Vasseur in my direction following his meeting with the media that Sunday evening in Miami. The reason for that wink? The quiet confidence of a Team Principal who had just finished talking about how teams like McLaren, Mercedes, and yes Ferrari had closed the gap to Red Bull, and were finally putting the defending Constructors’ Champions under pressure. The wink was clear, and so too was the message.
The fight at the front is on.
Red Bull may ultimately emerge victorious in that fight, but if they want a third straight Constructors’ Championship they will absolutely have to earn it.
We are in the middle point of a dramatic Formula 1 campaign that has offered so many twists and turns to the tale, and yet more twists and turns await.
We are witnessing what is shaping up to be perhaps a four-way title fight, featuring Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren, and Mercedes. Four giants of this sport, four legendary teams battling for glory.
And while Max Verstappen certainly looks every bit the part of the Drivers’ Champion yet again that title fight is in no way, shape, or form done and dusted as of yet. He will certainly be viewed as the favorite and may continue to inch away from his rivals with another victory or strong finish this weekend at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
But he may not, and by no means is that title settled in the way it has been over recent years.
In recent years the Formula 1 season felt like more of a coronation than anything else. A slow march to the inevitable celebration in Red Bull’s garage as the team, and another of the greatest drivers the sport will ever know, marks another triumph.
But this season, it feels different. The celebration may be the same come fall, but it will have been much tougher to earn.
As the grid embarks on the second half of this campaign, there is everything to play for, and there is everything in doubt. There are battles up and down the grid, drivers fighting for their legacies, and even their futures within the sport, and 12 grueling race weekends left to decide it all, a schedule that will take the sport from Hungary to Abu Dhabi, and everywhere in between.
Welcome to the Hungarian Grand Prix, and the start of what could be an incredible second half of the 2024 Formula 1 season.
