The 2024 Components 1 season was marked by hypothesis over whether or not anybody might problem Max Verstappen as he aimed for his fourth championship title.
All year long, two drivers emerged because the almost certainly candidates to tackle Verstappen: Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc.
Verstappen displayed distinctive type all through the season, with a standout efficiency on the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, the place he gained from seventeenth on the grid. This victory helped him safe the championship in Las Vegas, leaving Norris and Leclerc to battle for second place within the Drivers’ Championship heading into the season finale in Abu Dhabi. David Coulthard praised Charles Leclerc’s efficiency in Abu Dhabi, describing his restoration from P19 to 3rd as flawless, although it wasn’t sufficient to surpass Norris. Norris led from begin to end in Abu Dhabi, serving to McLaren safe the Constructors’ title.
Finally, Norris completed 18 factors forward of Leclerc. Regardless of this, each drivers remained optimistic about their possibilities of claiming their first championship in 2025, with the expectation that Pink Bull may not have the identical benefit going into the subsequent season.
A statistic shared on Components 1’s official Instagram account sparked a divide amongst followers. Charles Leclerc’s supporters started to argue that he was the stronger driver after evaluating the factors tally between the 2 rivals over the course of the 2024 season.
The submit illustrated how the factors have been distributed throughout three segments of the season—early, mid, and late. To supply context, Max Verstappen scored 169, 134, and 134 factors respectively in every third of the marketing campaign.
Up till the Monaco Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc had outscored Norris 138 to 133. Nonetheless, from the Canadian Grand Prix by way of to Monza, Lando Norris gained the higher hand, outscoring Leclerc 128 to 79. Within the last eight races of the season, Charles Leclerc completed forward of Norris by six factors (139-133), main a lot of his followers to argue that he was the stronger of the 2 drivers.
One fan identified that the statistic put into perspective how Norris’s supposed “title combat” with Verstappen by no means materialized. One other fan emphasised that, at no level over the past eight races did Norris rating extra factors than Max Verstappen. Some followers even urged that the Monegasque driver might need been a championship contender had it not been for 5 races the place the automotive’s efficiency dropped off. One fan famous that, over the past eight races, Charles Leclerc had outperformed the Dutchman, calling him “clearly higher than Norris in a superb automotive.”
Additional feedback mirrored on the place issues went flawed for the Monegasque driver, with followers mentioning how his efficiency might need been higher if not for a tough three-race stretch after Canada, or if he had carried out higher within the center a part of the season.
Looking forward to the 2025 season, each Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris are anticipated to see the subsequent marketing campaign as their finest likelihood to compete for the championship in opposition to Max Verstappen. With Pink Bull unlikely to make vital enhancements over the winter, each Ferrari and McLaren are anticipated to have aggressive automobiles in 2025.
Nonetheless, earlier than they will problem Max Verstappen, each drivers might want to overcome inner workforce battles. Lando Norris, who had the help of teammate Oscar Piastri this season, will face a more durable problem subsequent yr as Oscar Piastri is unlikely to yield positions to him. For the Ferrari driver, his hardest problem will come within the type of seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, a job that might show much more tough than any inner competitors he faces from teammate Carlos Sainz.
If each Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris handle to overcome these obstacles, a head-to-head championship battle between the 2 may very well be within the playing cards. Nonetheless, with Max Verstappen’s dominance within the sport, it’s unimaginable to rule him out of any title combat.
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