Formula 1 is certainly not at its halfway point of the 2024 season, with 14 races down and 10 to go, but nonetheless, this is the traditional point in the year when the sport takes stock. Mandatory factory shutdowns and team member holidays do little to stop the news cycle, but at the very least they should mean the championship positions aren’t changing until the end of the month. So on that basis, here’s our take on how each team’s year is shaping up.
RED BULL
The good: Red Bull still leads both championships, and in the drivers’ standings Max Verstappen has a lead that should be more than enough to carry him to a fourth straight title. On the right track, the RB20 is unbeatable in Verstappen’s hands, and on the occasions when there are challenging weekends that aren’t even yielding podiums – increasingly common in recent rounds – the Dutchman still always seems to extend his advantage.
The bad: A year ago I wrote that “picking something bad actually is tough”, but that’s not the case 12 months on. The Christian Horner investigation cast a cloud over the team at the start of the year and still appears to be unresolved, while the departures of Adrian Newey and Jonathan Wheatley are big losses. (The latter’s departure is understandable considering the role he was offered at Audi). But perhaps the biggest area of concern is the speed at which Red Bull has been caught by rivals, leaving it extremely vulnerable in the constructors’ championship as long as Sergio Perez struggles to deliver the results required.
McLAREN
The good: Against all expectations, McLaren has reeled Red Bull in, and on average across different tracks, has at least as quick a car. In Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri it no longer has two future race winners but two actual race winners who are capable of kicking on, and Andrea Stella has been locked down longer-term to continue the momentum. I can’t believe I’m saying it after what we saw over the first four rounds, but I’d call McLaren favorite for the constructors’ championship right now.
The bad: We could be talking about a legitimate title fight if McLaren had taken every opportunity available to it. I’m being picky, but then you have to perform at the highest level at all times if you want the best chance of winning a championship, and there’s an argument that every race since Miami – other than perhaps Monaco – could have been a McLaren victory. Those first four rounds also are proving a little costly, because if McLaren had its current car straight out of the box, the season could look very different.
FERRARI
The good: Ferrari is in a much stronger position than it was at this stage a year ago, and it certainly can’t be ruled out of the constructors’ championship race either as it sits just 63 points behind Red Bull. Both of its drivers have won races this year too, and they are far more consistent than the Red Bull pairing. There have also been largely solid strategy calls, and in Spa there were further signs of progress after issues with a recent upgrade.
The bad: After Monaco there was talk of Charles Leclerc challenging for the championship, and Ferrari was still clearly the biggest threat to Red Bull at that point. Measured solely against Red Bull, it hasn’t dropped too far back – but McLaren and Mercedes have both comfortably leapfrogged it. Development had been good, but the Spanish GP upgrade set the team back, and it might not recover from that in a way that allows it to impact the championship.
MERCEDES
The good: The Mercedes turnaround has been even bigger than the McLaren one this season, and it happened almost undetected. Rumblings about the impact of a new front wing in Monaco – where fifth place matched the team’s best result of the season to that point – suddenly led to a leap forward in Canada that was dismissed as at the time as a one-off. Three wins in the last four races say otherwise. Both drivers are happier with the stronger car and are performing well, and there appears to finally be a clear understanding of how to bring successful developments under this generation of regulations.
The bad: The first eight races were terrible in context, yielding just 96 points in total and leaving Mercedes well adrift of the top three teams. And while they are few, there have been costly mistakes, including George Russell’s car being underweight in Belgium that cost the team a one-two. That result alone makes a constructors’ title challenge extremely unrealistic, but as strange as it is to say given recent results, there’s also an inconsistency in the car’s performance that still needs addressing.
ASTON MARTIN
The good: Aston Martin finished fifth in the constructors’ championship last year, and is going to finish fifth again this year. And Lance Stroll deserves credit for now being far closer to Fernando Alonso than he was last season, finding his feet this year to all but match his teammate 16 to 15 on points in the past eight races.
The bad: The lack of progress. Yes, Aston took advantage of others underperforming last season and many have improved since, but Mike Krack’s team hasn’t moved forward. McLaren and Mercedes have shown huge strides can be made, but despite the resource and facilities, Aston is tracking to score 136 points this season, less than half of last year’s total of 280. Plus, as impressive as it is to see Stroll getting close to Alonso, the double world champion’s form has dipped a little as the team has lost competitiveness, following six straight top 10s to start the year with three scores in eight rounds.
RB
The good: A bit like last year, Yuki Tsunoda is the standout positive of the RB team’s first half of the year. His performances in the first part of the season were really impressive, and he’s been locked down for another year in 2025. The team has also been more equally matched than in the past, with Daniel Ricciardo finding his feet again after a slow start, meaning both cars have been contributing to a run of points in all but two of the past 12 rounds.
The bad: This time last year the car was the worst on the grid and RB had just three points to its name, but the upturn in form in late 2023 led to high expectations. It hasn’t really kicked on, and the team is looking over its shoulder at Haas, having failed to score with both cars on a Sunday this season (although both did score in the Miami Sprint race). There also appears to be a bit of muddled thinking from the Red Bull side of things, with talk of being developed into a strong team in its own right being contradicted by Helmut Marko’s suggestion that RB needs to be a training ground for young drivers again.
HAAS
The good: Haas has a new lease of life after Guenther Steiner’s departure. Nothing against Steiner, who also had a big role in setting the groundwork for this year, but the response to last year’s race pace struggles has been hugely impressive. And Nico Hulkenberg continues to deliver on that, scoring 22 of the team’s 27 points, including excellent back-to-back sixth-place finishes in Austria and Silverstone. The latter of those results also showed car development to be greatly improved.
The bad: Hulkenberg is going to be leaving at the end of the year, and Kevin Magnussen is struggling to match what his teammate can achieve. Just five points (four or which came in Austria) and no Q3 appearances compared to Hulkenberg’s six have hurt the team’s chances of being ahead of RB right now and perhaps even looking up at Aston Martin.
ALPINE
The good: Alpine, somehow, is up to eighth in the championship. After the start it had to the year it had, turning its form around enough to score points on a consistent basis (six of the past nine rounds, including two double-points scores) has been a real achievement. It’s even more impressive when you factor in the mess the team has been in off the track. Plus, both drivers are performing well in a tough environment,
The bad: To take a quote from last year’s entry at the same stage: “All the off-track stuff”. Key technical personnel leaving before the start of the season, another change in team principal, and an apparent move away from being a constructor under the returning Flavio Briatore’s guidance. Alpine lacks direction and has for a long time, so perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise how far below its potential it is performing, but it is miles away from where it has been over the past three years.
WILLIAMS
The good: Williams has stabilized its situation after a tumultuous start to its season, and has shown itself to have a car that is consistently competitive – a step forward from the major swings in performance of 12 months ago. And amid a recruitment drive off-track, it can’t be overlooked that Carlos Sainz has bought into the project by signing a multi-year deal from 2025 to partner Alex Albon in what will be an extremely strong line-up.
The bad: There have been just four points in total – all scored by Albon – and the car is a consistent seventh- or eighth-fastest. That makes scoring tough, although it’s rarely slowest, and it isn’t helped by Logan Sargeant only escaping Q1 on three occasions. In the Floridian’s defense, he was set back more than Albon by having to give his car up in Australia and miss a race weekend early in the season due to his teammate crashing, thanks to the frankly unacceptable situation that there wasn’t a spare chassis available at the third round of the year.
STAKE
The good: It has signed Nico Hulkenberg for next season, and that’s meant as no slight on the current two drivers, who are on a hiding to nothing with such an uncompetitive car. But Hulkenberg has been a standout performer over the past two years, and will be a great addition. As will Jonathan Wheatley as team principal in future, while hopefully Mattia Binotto’s recent arrival can start to give the team clear direction before it becomes Audi in 2026.
The bad: Where to start? The car has been uncompetitive, the team’s pit stops made it a laughing stock at the beginning of the year, and drivers don’t want to join even with the promise of the Audi project. Carlos Sainz and Esteban Ocon both chose to race elsewhere, and it’s no surprise given the recent overhaul in management that suggests the team isn’t on the right path for the future. It certainly isn’t right now, with no points and a best of P13 since the opening round of the season.