Autosport Top 50 of 2024: #12 Nicklas Nielsen
Nicklas Nielsen proved how good he is in the final stages of the Le Mans 24 Hours as Ferrari made it two out of two in the big one after its return to top-flight sportscar racing as a factory.The pressure on the Dane was intense as he saved fuel whileContinue Reading
Autosport Top 50 of 2024: #11 George Russell
Qualifying was where George Russell gained an important edge at Mercedes in 2024, which he put down to his confidence rising in situations where the pressure is on. He ended up with a small but still significant 0.148s advantage over a driver with 104 F1 poles in Lewis Hamilton.Their head-to-head splitContinue Reading
Autosport Top 50 of 2024: #10 Thierry Neuville
After 17 years of hard graft, Thierry Neuville can finally call himself a world rally champion. Five-times a runner-up, the Hyundai driver enjoyed a standout season by leading the championship from start to finish, a feat most recently achieved by Sebastien Ogier in 2016. Neuville scored two impressive victories, the firstContinue Reading
Autosport Top 50 of 2024: #8 Kevin Estre
Maybe not the ace in the pack of the Porsche Penske Motorsport World Endurance Championship squad in year one of the 963 LMDh race programme, Kevin Estre came of age in 2024 when he had the car under him to do the business – and also, perhaps, when he didn’t!TheContinue Reading
Autosport Top 50 of 2024: #7 Pascal Wehrlein
Pascal Wehrlein merited his world title after making no season-defining errors. He only non-scored twice due to collisions that weren’t his fault.Vastly improved qualifying was key; three poles meant nine bonus points, three more than his title-winning margin. His campaign began with victory in Mexico and at Misano he benefitedContinue Reading
Autosport Top 50 of 2024: #6 Carlos Sainz
A classy year for Carlos Sainz in difficult circumstances, in knowing that first, his Ferrari seat was going to Lewis Hamilton in 2025 and second, in losing a race to appendicitis. The Spaniard bounced back from the illness with a fine victory in Melbourne, and his victory in Mexico was perhapsContinue Reading
Autosport Top 50 of 2024: #3 Lando Norris
Undoubtedly, his best Formula 1 season to date – with the statistics proving so. In 2024, Lando Norris finished as championship runner-up (his previous best finishing position was sixth in 2021 and 2023), he took four wins in breaking his GP victory duck (along with a sprint win too) andContinue Reading
Autosport Top 50 of 2024: #2 Charles Leclerc
If 2024 was a year when Ferrari made it clear exactly how much Charles Leclerc means to the team – signing him to a new contract and leaving Carlos Sainz exposed when Lewis Hamilton became available – then he too showed how much the Prancing Horse means to him.The disappointmentContinue Reading
Autosport Top 50 of 2024: #1 Max Verstappen
“A Schrodinger’s season for Max Verstappen. Concurrently his best and not his best.” That’s how we’ve described the world champion’s campaign in our Formula 1 driver rankings. And that’s because there are two ways of looking at Verstappen’s performance over the past months.One is that his success in winning theContinue Reading
Why Red Bull’s Lawson pick renders its Ricciardo experiment a waste of time
Let’s recap the saga of Red Bull’s second seat alongside Max Verstappen, shall we? It’s a saga that, by all accounts, is gratuitously long and ends in a resolution that would be entirely predictable for a team with a ‘normal’ approach to the driver market.Carlos Sainz became unexpectedly available forContinue Reading



