Lewis Hamilton heads to Ferrari on the back of his most uneven season in Formula 1 to date. His 2024 campaign provided grist to the mill for those who insist his championship-contending days are over, but there were also times he looked like the Hamilton of old, no more so than when he finally ended his two-and-a-half-year wait for a victory.
Mercedes’ W15 was the team’s best attempt at tackling the ‘ground effect’ era regulations to date, but that is damning with faint praise. When the car was at its best it could rival anything on the track, especially through quick corners, but neither the team nor its drivers could dependably figure out how to get the best from it.
Hamilton, long a great exponent of the single flying lap, said his qualifying effort at the season-opener in Bahrain “sucked” and matters never really improved from there. Time and again he found himself having to make up for a poor qualifying performance on race day: That more than anything else defined his final season as a Mercedes driver.
Starting lower down the grid than he should have done inevitably compromised Hamilton’s season. The clearest example came in Las Vegas, where Mercedes were unexpectedly the team to beat but Hamilton’s two errors in qualifying effectively guaranteed victory for George Russell in the other car.
Lewis Hamilton
| Best | Worst | |
|---|---|---|
| GP start | 2 | 19 |
| GP finish | 1 (x2) | 12 |
| Points | 223 | |
On that occasion Hamilton recovered superbly to complete a one-two finish for the team. But it didn’t always turn out that well. While Russell fought for victory in the rain at Interlagos, Hamilton rarely figured. He suffered a grim race in Losail where he wanted to park the car and, most unusually, spun out of the grand prix in Austin.
These were the obvious low points of Hamilton’s season. But his many supporters will draw hope from a mid-season run in which he appeared to return to the peak of his powers. At Silverstone he produced one of the best drives of the season to win in mixed conditions, he kept Max Verstappen behind at the Hungaroring far more effectively than his new team mate did, and did the best he could on a two-stop strategy in Spa, eventually claiming victory due to Russell’s disqualification.
Hamilton’s season therefore offers a broader range of interpretation than most drivers: He looked utterly lost on occasions but the potential clearly still exists. Whether he can hit those peaks consistently will determine what future success may await him.
RaceFans’ driver rankings are based partly on the scores awarded to drivers for their performances in each round as well as other factors.
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