McLaren have done it. Their first Championship of any kind in 16 years. A remarkable achievement for the Woking team considering that barely five years ago they were struggling to score points. Now, they are Constructors’ World Champions.
Alongside the McLaren success, there were other big moments from the final round of the Formula One season that are worth talking about.
What are they? You’re about to find out in the penultimate edition of F1 talking points for 2024!
Papaya really does rule in 2024
McLaren are Constructors’ Champions. Words that I honestly didn’t think could ever be possible again after the last decade.
Lando Norris dominating the race was enough to bring it home for the Woking team, with Oscar Piastri’s strong recovery drive also adding a point to their tally. Given some of the races this season in which it looked like they were actively throwing away their Championship aspirations, it was an even better result.
I’m in no way a McLaren fan. In fact, I grew up having what I liked to call ‘the M word’ as a taboo thing to say around most people I associated with. So for me to be able to say it’s a good thing and congratulations to them for taking the title in 2024, is a big deal personally.
But I do mean it. Because it’s great to see them return to the top. After the uncertainty that came when Lewis Hamilton left the team in 2012. The supposed return to glory with the Honda partnership and Fernando Alonso that turned out to be one of the biggest busts in the history of the sport. The purgatory years with Renault that helped move them up slightly but never quite to where they wanted to be. It’s been a remarkable journey for the team and adds even more weight to their impressive win.
With all the drama around certain aspects in 2024, it is safe to say that the only Papaya Rule to emerge was the one that saw them rule the Constructors’ Championshp.
Daddy Verstappen still the man to beat
Max Verstappen announced during the weekend that he and his partner Kelly Piquet are expecting their first child together, giving the Dutchman a perfect cherry on top to another amazing year.
And it has been another amazing year for Verstappen, who even when he clearly had a car disadvantage was able to navigate through the difficulties to secure his fourth World Championship.
Lando Norris was adamant on the radio in Abu Dhabi that next year would be his year to take his first Drivers’ Championship. And based on most of his form for the year, you wouldn’t put it past him for that to be a possibility.
However, whether a father or not, Verstappen clearly still is the favourite going into next year. It just will come down to whether fatherhood changes him.
Many drivers have spoken over the years about how children have changed their perspective on life and their time in the sport. Some have said it helped. Others said it hurt. But when you have the talent Verstappen has, you’d be farfetched to believe it will change him too much as he continues to lead the pack in F1 for many years to come.
Doohan’s debut goes under the radar
A lot can happen in F1 pretty quickly, and a lot did since my last edition of talking points a week ago.
After that was published, it was announced that Aussie Jack Doohan would get his F1 debut a race earlier than expected at Alpine, with regular driver Esteban Ocon departing the team early to allow him to participate in the end of season test for his new team Haas.
This of course meant a great opportunity for Doohan to get to grips with a Formula 1 weekend as a race driver, and perhaps take a bit of the edge off heading into the Australian Grand Prix in March where there would be extra eyes and pressure on him at his home race.
As for his debut, it was a pretty unassuming time for Jack. He never did anything amazing to set the world on fire, qualified at the back of the field and drove an uneventful race to finish a lap down in 15th place.
But given the last-minute call up, it has to be said he did what he could given the circumstances. He also didn’t crash, do anything to make Alpine doubt their decision was correct and can enter 2025 now with a bit more confidence knowing that he has that debut behind him.
2025 will be a big year for Doohan, and one that all us Aussie fans hope is a good one.
More celebration needed for departing drivers
There was a big deal made about Lewis Hamilton’s final race for Mercedes in Abu Dhabi, and rightfully so. It was the ending of the most successful partnership not only in F1 history, but also one of the most successful in sports history.
But where was the fanfare for the other departing drivers?
Valtteri Bottas, Sergio Perez, Kevin Magnussen, Zhou Guanyu and Franco Colapinto were all driving in what could be their last-ever race in the sport. For drivers such as Bottas and Perez who have multiple wins under their belts and have helped their teams win Championships, this was sadly overlooked.
Sure, Perez is technically still a driver in 2025, but we all know that isn’t going to be the case. Bottas too has never officially retired, so it makes it difficult, but there needed to be a bit more recognition for their time in the sport based on what they had achieved.
And it did just seem a bit off to be celebrating one driver leaving a team to go to another, when there were drivers on the grid who deserved to be celebrated just as much along the way.
It’s a tiny nitpick I know, but come on, let’s try and share the love around the grid instead of just on one driver.
British bias once again on full show
Speaking of a nitpick, final note on a topic that was hot a few rounds ago but has been swept under the rug since.
The so-called ‘British Bias’ was on full display in Abu Dhabi, particularly when it came to McLaren and their pursuit of the Constructors’ Championship.
Throughout the race, there were constant cuts back to Woking to see reactions from McLaren staff to certain moments as they were on their edge of their seats, hoping their long title drought would finally be over.
Fantastic. This is great human emotion that we love to see and something which is added even more given it has been so long since they won a Championship of any kind.
But there was another team involved in the Championship fight too. Another group of employees who would’ve been on the edge of their seats hoping that their own title drought would be broken. Another team wearing red based in Italy that I’m sure would also have been having the same reactions.
But did we see said team? Said employees? Said reactions? Of course not. Because they weren’t British were they?
Yes, SkySports is British and yes their main audience is always going to be British. But they do also focus on 80 different markets around the world that aren’t British, many of which don’t support British teams and would like a bit of balance in their coverage.
This isn’t new. It’s always happened in F1 no matter what. And it will always happen. But when you’ve got more eyes on the sport than ever before and those eyes have more of a voice than ever before, perhaps it’s time that they are listened to a bit more and catered to a bit more when they’re not all British.
This article was originally written for The Roar. You can read the published version here
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