With the circus on hold because of the F1 summer break, teams and drivers will reflect on what has been a dramatic opening of 14 races of the 2024 season.
From Lando Norris’ maiden victory in Miami, the McLaren drama at the Hungaroring to George Russell’s disqualification, some would argue that F1 is back to its unpredictable best after a couple of seasons of Red Bull dominance.
But where does each team lie with just 10 races to go? EF1’s Iestyn Thomas unpicks each team to see where they are at the midway point of the season.
10th – Sauber
It has been quite the struggle for Sauber since their change from Alfa Romeo to the Kick branding.
Despite a striking green livery, the driver pairing of former Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu have failed to pick up a single point so far this season.
In 2023, they finished in ninth place on 16 points and they would need quite the turnaround if they were to achieve the same amount of points as last season.
The current car is the slowest out of the 10 teams, with Zhou’s 11th-place finish in Bahrain being the highest place finish of the year.
Yet off the track, there will be a change to Audi in 2026 with Mattia Binotto and Jonathan Wheatley joining the team ahead of 2025, with the latter joining as team principal.
But it hasn’t been the best of 2024’s for the team who have been off the pace which could cause Audi some concern ahead of their takeover.
9th – Williams
Another team that has faced struggles throughout the first part of the season would be Williams, who fell two places down the pecking order compared to 12 months ago.
At this stage last year, Williams were sat 7th in the constructors’ standings and were on 21 points.
There have been some encouraging signs, with Alex Albon claiming two points finishes and all four of the team’s points.
However, there’s plenty of optimism around the British team, with an experienced driver pairing being formed with Albon being joined by three-time Grand Prix winner Carlos Sainz for 2025.
8th – Alpine
It’s been an interesting season for Alpine, both on and off the track.
After a troubling start to the season with both drivers being knocked out in Q1 for the first two races, there’s certainly been an upturn in results since Esteban Ocon’s ninth place finish in Miami.
Yet there was some controversy in Monaco where Ocon collided with his teammate Pierre Gasly on the opening lap.
Since then, the team has picked up nine points, with Gasly achieving two ninth place finishes in a row in Montreal and Barcelona.
Ocon will be moving on from the Enstone team at the end of the season, whilst there are strong rumours that the ex-F2 driver and Alpine reserve/test driver, Jack Doohan, will join the team next year.
7th – Haas
One of the big improvements of the 2024 season has been Haas.
Despite the departure of Gunther Steiner at the beginning of the year, team principal Ayao Komatsu has done a fine job.
The 2025 driver lineup was confirmed ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix, with Ocon joining from Alpine alongside British driver Oliver Bearman, who impressed with his debut appearance with Ferrari in Saudi Arabia.
Current drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen have been performing well, with the former picking up 22 out of the team’s 27 points so far.
Magnussen’s driving style has caused split opinions amongst fans, especially after the Miami sprint race, but there was a P8 finish in Austria, which was a strong weekend for the team.
Yet it seems that the German driver has the edge in the teammate’s battle.
Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 14, Belgian Grand Prix, Sunday 28th July 2024. Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium. Photo Credit: Williams Racing.
6th – Racing Bulls
12 months ago, AlphaTauri were the bottom of the constructors with just three points to their name.
A year on, a rebrand later and a buy one get one free joke from James Vowels, RB are in sixth place on 34 points.
Improvement throughout the second half of 2023 was carried into this year, with Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo at the wheel despite Liam Lawson’s best efforts after a points finish at last year’s Singapore Grand Prix.
Ricciardo’s fourth place finish in the Miami sprint was backed up with Tsunoda’s seventh place in the main race, with the Japanese driver picking up 22 points in what has been an impressive season.
5th – Aston Martin
If you were to head back to the Bahrain Grand Prix of 2023, there would have been plenty of talk surrounding Aston Martin being the team to break through the top three of Mercedes, Ferrari, and Red Bull.
Two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso claimed six out of the team’s eight podiums last year, yet the Spaniard’s fifth place in Jeddah is the team’s highest place finish this season.
The comforting thing is that there’s no pressure from behind yet as they’re 39 points ahead of RB, but there has been a substantial drop off over the last 18 months.
As ever, the rumour mill will always swirl in this sport and with reports of a certain Adrian Newey joining, it could be a big boost for the British-based team.
4th – Mercedes
Arguably the form team in the last couple of races before the summer break, it’s been quite the turnaround for Mercedes.
After the announcement of Lewis Hamilton’s departure to Ferrari, there’s been a string of strong performances, which has included three wins in their last four races.
They were 1.5kg shy of recording a brilliant one-two finish at Spa following George Russell’s one stop strategy.
In the last six races, there’s been a Mercedes on the podium in each race, which included Russell’s win in Austria and an outstanding home win for the seven time World Champion.
If they can continue this form, they could certainly push Ferrari and McLaren close.
3rd – Ferrari
It feels like Ferrari is in the middle of nowhere at the moment. There’s not much talk about them at the midway point of the season, yet both drivers are in the top five of the drivers’ standings.
Sainz and Leclerc have celebrated victories, with the latter 100 points adrift from Championship leader Max Verstappen.
We mustn’t forget the surprise debut from Bearman either, who filled in for Sainz in Jeddah and drove well to finish P7 despite limited preparation time.
The Italian team will be hoping that they can remain consistently close to the top two teams and not drift behind Mercedes in the race for third.
2nd – McLaren
If you compared situations from this time last year, then the biggest improvement would be McLaren.
They only had two podiums to their name during 2023 at this stage, mainly down to a relatively new package being fitted to the car.
Zak Brown has seen his team celebrate two victories and has secured the future services of drivers Lando Norris & Oscar Piastri alongside team principal Andreas Seidl.
But we have seen some controversy, including the situation in Hungary which was messy.
Whichever approach the team makes in the second half of the season, they would need to ensure that decisions are correct and won’t cause any division between the team that has plenty of potential.
1st – Red Bull
When Red Bull won the opening two races with one-two finishes, many expected this season to be similar to the last two years.
It looked like Max Verstappen was going to waltz away with the drivers’ championship and nobody could get remotely close to him.
Yet, it’s been quite a mess off the track with Newey & Wheatley departing at the end of the season alongside the disturbing stories around Christian Horner, there seems to be a clear divide within the team which could prove damaging.
Verstappen is still getting the best out of the car, except for Austria where he and Norris collided, but there’s plenty of pressure surrounding Sergio Perez at the moment after a couple of crashes in qualifying and poor race performances.
It would require quite the falloff for the Dutch driver to not win his fourth World Title, the ball is still in his court for now despite improvements elsewhere, but if future upgrades doesn’t go to plan, then there could be trouble on top of the current issues.
Where next for F1?
After the F1 summer break, the European section of the season will come to an end after racing at Zandvoort, Monza and Baku.
Before heading to Singapore before the American leg of the season in Texas, Mexico, Interlagos and Las Vegas.
The final two rounds of the season take us into December with Qatar and Abu Dhabi finishing the season.
2024 did start as a bit of a slow burner, but if the excitement of the middle part of the season could continue, then we’re in for a cracking end to the Formula 1 season.
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