Another round is in the books of the 2024 F1 season and things continue to get extra exciting at the front of the field.
Did we ever think that was something that would be said a few months ago after the continued Max Verstappen dominance? Of course not.
But somehow we sit poised for a grandstand finish of what is shaping up to be an all-time classic season.
With all that in mind, let’s get into another edition of F1 talking points.
The most exciting season since 2010
Did we ever imagine that after the Spanish Grand Prix, we would be talking about this being an all-time classic season?Max Verstappen had just won his seventh race of the season. It was round ten.
While it wasn’t as dominant as the season prior, we still had a fairly bleak outlook ahead for the remainder of 2024.
Fast forward six rounds and Max Verstappen hasn’t won since. We’ve had five different winners from three different teams, and all of a sudden we have a Championship on our hands and go into each round never knowing who may come out on top.
By far this is the most exciting season we’ve seen since 2010 when we faced a similar scenario not knowing who would win each weekend we watched.
At a time when F1 is at absolute peak popularity, this is what it needs.
It needs an influx of uncertainty to appease the new fans who believe this is what the sport is. It needs an exciting Championship with new drivers to really maintain its popularity and make it much more than a social media clickbait circus.
Yes, as a traditionalist I have spoken many times about the sport being much more than exciting overtakes and action-packed races filled with different scenarios, and I always appreciate the many facets of ‘excitement’ this sport can bring.
From the mundane dominance of one driver/team to the uncertainty of many different race winners. There is so much to appreciate about the sport we love.
(Photo by Al Jazeera)
But right now, it’s safe to say that whichever way you look at Formula 1, it’s in the best position it’s been since 2010.
That’s nothing but a good thing.
Tyre death or Grand Prix glory – Ferrari strategy on top again
As a Ferrari fan, even I’m in shock that a bold strategy call actually worked and that we’re sitting here several days later still celebrating an amazing win by the Scuderia.
For the team to gamble on a late one-stop call for Charles Leclerc, a move which Sky Sports pundit Ted Kravitz called ‘tyre death or grand prix glory’, it was bold. Given the history of Ferrari and its strategy calls, it was one that you expected to fail.
But given the bad calls of Ferrari have transitioned across to McLaren, Ferrari somehow reaped the benefits of such a decision and pulled off arguably one of the most famous strategic wins in their history.
Put it in the same basket as Sepang 2015, Magny-Cours 2004 or Budapest 1998 for recent brilliant strategy calls by the team, and alongside all the historic decisions that have gone side-by-side with them.
For it to happen at home too? An absolutely perfect occasion for it to happen.
It also vaults them right back into contention for the Constructors’ Championship. With eight races remaining, Ferrari sits only 39 points behind Red Bull in first. Given that in the last five races Ferrari has outscored Red Bull by 25 points, that gap is nothing.
Keep up these amazing strategy calls and the strong form by both Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, and it’s not only the orange team up front that could turn this Championship on its head.
(Photo by Getty Images)
Papaya rules is becoming troublesome
As an Australian, seeing Oscar Piastri not win in Italy was hard.
You can add that to the many races this year in which you feel the Melbourne driver should’ve won, or finished a lot better than he did.
However, we have to talk about the so called ‘Papaya Rules’ implemented by McLaren and how that is going to affect their tilt at a first Championship of any kind in 16 years.
Essentially ‘Papaya Rules’ states that both Piastri and Lando Norris are allowed to race each other, but as long as they keep the racing clean.
This stands alongside McLaren’s historical approach to racing of never having a clear number one and number two driver in their team and always allowing their drivers to race.
Yes, this on paper is great. We always want to see parity in a team, and we always want to see the best drivers in the best machine race each other.
But let’s be honest here, this is only good when both drivers are in with a chance of winning the title.
I’m thinking all the way back to the 80s. Senna and Prost. It was great. We loved it. The car was so dominant that it didn’t matter who won. We knew a McLaren would take the title. So it didn’t matter.
In the late 1990s this also generally worked at the beginning of both 1998 and 1999 when Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard fought for supremacy.
Then though it was clear that it was Hakkinnen who would come out on top, and be the one to take it to the Ferrari of Michael Schumacher, something which Coulthard eventually saw and helped his teammate out.
The issues of this crept in famously in 2007, when the in-fighting of Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso arguably prevented the team from taking the Drivers’ title that year, with Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen sneaking through in the last race to claim the World Championship.
Right now, we might be seeing something similar.
(Photo by Getty Images)
As much as all of us Aussies want to see Piastri win and fight at the front, the truth is he isn’t in with a chance of the Championship.
Currently in fourth, he is 106 points behind Max Verstappen. Norris meanwhile is second, 62 points behind the Dutchman.
That gap could easily be 52 points had Norris been allowed to win in Hungary and finish second in Italy. Ten valuable points that could be the difference at the end of the season.
It’s time for McLaren to get themselves truly back into a winning mindset and remember what it was like to fight for a Championship.
Yes, it’s been 14 years since they’ve genuinely been here before, but that’s no excuse in the grand scheme of things when they’re fighting for something that they haven’t tasted in 16 for a Drivers’ and a whopping 26 for a Constructors’.
If they can get their head out of gimmicky rules and focus on the grander picture, then their ascent back to the top of the sport will be complete, making long-suffering McLaren fans a very happy bunch.
Magnussen’s ban has come too late
I called for a race ban for Kevin Magnussen back in Monaco after his antics there somehow went unpunished.
Apparently now though a few minor infractions in Monza warrant said ban, with the Danish driver, set to become the first driver since former teammate Romain Grosjean to sit out a race due to race ban.
Magnussen has always pushed the boundaries with his racing, and that’s not always a bad thing. It’s often entertaining to see a driver go that little bit harder and push the limits. But there is that important word: limit.
There is always a line that shouldn’t be crossed.
For Magnussen, his driving in Italy was nowhere near the limit of what we have seen him capable of in the past.
In fact, you really do have to question if it was warranted. The fact he was able to drive to a points finish still after what occurred, really should be celebrated, not punished.
No matter what the thought is though, he will miss the next race in Baku, opening the door for Oliver Bearman to once again get the call-up and get an early taste of the team he will drive for in 2025.
The decision does show though that once again the FIA have a consistency problem with their decision making, one that really does need a thorough look over sometime very soon.
(Photo by PlanetF1)
Vowles’ management style is once again in question
A quick final note on James Vowles and his tenure at Williams.
After Logan Sargeant was given the flick ahead of Italy, the question of who would replace him was a big talking point.
The surprise choice of Franco Colapinto was made, leaving the likes of Liam Lawson and Mick Schumacher disappointed on the sidelines.
However, that didn’t stop Vowles from a very public dig at Schumacher, who when asked about why he wasn’t chosen, brutally claimed that Mick was ‘not special’ in his summary of him.
While Vowles is of course entitled to his opinion and has since clarified his comments to mean he wasn’t in the same ‘special’ league as the likes of a Senna or Hamilton, it still raises a few concerns around how Vowles manages certain situations.
Many times at Williams there have been questionable calls made, and you only have to go back to Albert Park and his management over the spare car situation with Sargeant and Alex Albon to raise some of those concerns even higher.
The fact too that Williams has seemingly fallen back since Vowles has taken the lead at the team also can be mentioned in the same conversation, although that isn’t purely down to him.
But you do have to question at times just how things are being run at the team and where they are going from him.
Schumacher didn’t set the world alight in his two years at Haas, but there were many circumstances surrounding that.
He also did shine on several occasions and has many backers in his corner as to why he deserves another shot in the sport to show what he is capable of.
Vowles’ assessment was by far a way too harsh look at him, and one that hopefully won’t have long last implications on the German as he fights his way to get back on the grid.
This article was originally written for The Roar. You can read the published version here
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