The 2024 F1 season revealed sporadic glimpses of Mercedes’s potential, yet the team ultimately fell below expectations and Hamilton’s final title hopes.
Mercedes F1 was already under the spotlight even before the 2024 season began, following the announcement of Lewis Hamilton’s departure for Ferrari in 2025.
The idea was therefore to end in style this partnership that began in 2013. But there would be no eighth title for Hamilton, just a few wins for both drivers.
Any hope of giving the seven-time world champion a faster car for his final year with Mercedes seemed to have been dashed from the outset – and although the team enjoyed a mid-season run of victories, the W15’s inconsistencies led to a topsy-turvy campaign.
The standout results will, of course, remain George Russell’s victories in Austria and Las Vegas, and Lewis Hamilton’s wins in Great Britain, in front of his home crowd, and in Belgium.
Glimmers of hope began to appear for Mercedes at the Canadian Grand Prix in June, where Russell secured pole position before claiming the team’s first podium of the year.
But it was two rounds later in Austria that the Silver Arrows clinched a long-awaited victory, with Russell seizing the opportunity after a late-race collision between leaders Max Verstappen and Lando Norris.
That result kicked off a strong run for the team, highlighted by an emotional victory for Hamilton at the British Grand Prix – his first in 945 days – while they might have scored a one-two finish in Belgium had Russell not been disqualified after the race for an underweight car, handing first place to Hamilton.
Though the second half of the campaign did not yield the same success for Mercedes, that one-two finally arrived in Las Vegas, where the W15 seemed to thrive in cooler conditions, with Russell finishing ahead of Hamilton, who delivered a superb comeback drive.
A well-deserved win and a fortunate win each for the drivers, making four victories in total. It’s better than in 2022 or 2023 but still not enough for Mercedes F1.
Between the drivers, the duel clearly swung in Russell’s favor, especially in qualifying, where he bested Hamilton 19-5. He also claimed four pole positions, while Hamilton’s best starting slot of the season was second on the grid at Silverstone.
Hamilton performed better in the races, but Russell ultimately prevailed in their head-to-head by 15 to 9. The young Briton also ended the season with more points, his total of 245 placing him sixth in the Drivers’ Championship, ahead of Hamilton with 223 in seventh.
The two men are level on wins (two each), while Hamilton holds a slight edge in podiums, taking five to Russell’s four. Still, it’s likely neither driver is satisfied with these numbers, given how far behind they remain compared to their rivals at McLaren, Ferrari, and Red Bull.
The worst moment? After their strong mid-season form, the Silver Arrows’ drivers struggled with the car’s inconsistencies following the summer break. The Singapore Grand Prix was particularly tough, with Toto Wolff calling it a “really painful evening” as he admitted that crossing the line a minute behind the leader was “hard to accept.”
Yet one of the most difficult events may have been the Australian Grand Prix, a weekend that did little to lift spirits during a challenging start to the season, as Hamilton retired with a mechanical issue while Russell suffered a crash that left his car sideways on the track. Afterward, Hamilton described it as “the worst start to a season of my life.”
By finishing the season a distant fourth in the Constructors’ Championship – their weakest result since 2012 – Mercedes clearly did not achieve the outcome they had hoped for in 2024.
And even though a new set of regulations will not be introduced into the sport until 2026, a new era is already opening at Mercedes in 2025 with Hamilton’s departure, whose 12-year relationship with the team has been the longest and most successful in the sport’s history. Given the challenges of their final season together, 2024 was a bittersweet end for this partnership.
This conclusion brought forward Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s arrival in F1, with the 18-year-old being one of the many rookies preparing to make their debut next season. It will be fascinating to see how the young Italian fares as he prepares to take this big leap in his rapid rise toward the pinnacle of motorsport.
Russell, meanwhile, begins his fourth season with the team and will now assume the role of team leader, while Valtteri Bottas returns as a reserve driver. The Finn was a popular member of the Mercedes squad during his stint as Hamilton’s teammate from 2017 to 2021 – but time will tell if the Silver Arrows can recapture those glory days in the near future…
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Championship Position | 4th with 94 points |
| Wins | 4 |
| Pole Positions | 4 |
| Podiums | 9 |
| Fastest Laps | 4 |
| Hat Tricks | 0 |
| Grand Slams | 0 |
| Laps Led | 169 |
| Laps Completed | 2769 (95.88% of total) |
| Comparison | Result |
|---|---|
| Races | 15/9 in favor of George Russell |
| Qualifying | 19/5 in favor of George Russell |
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2024 F1 Season Review – Mercedes F1 2024 F1 Season Review – Mercedes F1 2024 F1 Season Review – Mercedes F1
