4 moments when you lost your F1 constructors title

Like the team that ultimately lost out, McLaren, Ferrari have made huge strides over the past 18 months. However, although the Italian national team held on to their chances until the end, they fell just short of winning the constructors’ title in 2024.

Ferrari became the only team to deny Red Bull a clean sweep in 2023 with Carlos Sainz’s deft victory in Singapore. However, there was a huge difference between single-lap performance and race day performance, leaving the team unsure of how well they would perform in 2024 or to what extent the tire overheating issue had been resolved.

It was therefore a pleasant surprise to see Ferrari appear in the team from the start of 2024, albeit behind Red Bull on pace. But little did the team know that it wasn’t Red Bull they had to worry about, but McLaren, who had fallen off the pace at the start of the season but had made huge strides since May’s Miami Grand Prix.

McLaren quickly overhauled Ferrari in the constructors’ division, and although the Scuderia mounted a late fightback, four key moments meant it would take a huge effort to catch up.

Canada: Ferrari’s only double retirement

Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-24, cuts a corner

Photo credit: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images

Ferrari suffered its first double retirement in two years after a horror weekend in Canada where a series of problems derailed the weekend. Charles Leclerc and Sainz failed to improve in the second half on old soft tires and were eliminated from Q2, starting from 11th and 12th.

Ferrari’s weekend took a turn for the worse in the race, with Leclerc retiring with an electronic problem in his power unit, Sainz spinning in wet conditions and Williams’ Alex Albon recovering. In response, team principal Fred Vasseur said in Montreal that Ferrari had “all the problems in the world”.

Spain: Faulty new floor sends Ferrari down a development rabbit hole

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24

Photo credit: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Ferrari had hoped to bounce back after Canada in the Barcelona-Spielberg-Silverstone triple-header, but the new floor introduced at the Spanish Grand Prix proved to cause bouncing in high-speed corners. Not only did this completely degrade performance, it also derailed the development program as the Maranello team needed to find and understand the root cause before tweaking the design.

The team was forced into back-to-back tests at Silverstone, having to sacrifice their set-up to get out of the hole, ceding more and more places to a McLaren team that was firing on all cylinders. Ferrari’s saving grace was the retirement of Lando Norris after a collision with Max Verstappen in Austria. Leclerc’s first podium in five races in Belgium was a glimpse that Ferrari, perhaps depressed, is far from depressed. Later races would prove that Ferrari had successfully cured the disease.

Baku: Sainz could miss out on podium after late collision with Perez

Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-24

Photo credit: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images

After Leclerc’s emotional victory in front of the Tifosi at Monza, Azerbaijan further confirmed that although the jury is still out on whether Ferrari has solved the high downforce problem, traction and top speed have improved. It further showed that the Scuderia are a team that can win on demanding circuits. It’s the king. Leclerc conceded victory to Oscar Piastri, who made no mistake, but behind him Sainz looked set to claw his way back to the podium until a late collision with Sergio Perez sent both cars crashing into the wall. The 15 points for third place would have gone a long way, but it should be noted that behind him Norris moved up the order to pick up a further four points.

Singapore: Pre-race favorite team loses ground after qualifying

With Singapore set to be the scene of Ferrari’s only victory in 2023, it was thought that the SF-24 and its predecessor would have an advantage due to its traction demands and lack of high-speed corners. However, while the Scuderia entered the weekend with good chances for victory, their hopes were largely dashed after a disappointing qualifying session in which Sainz crashed in Q3 and Leclerc also failed to set a time and was relegated to row five. Gone. Overtaking was almost impossible on the narrow streets of Singapore’s Marina Bay circuit, but both Leclerc and Sainz ran strong races that kept damage to a minimum, leaving McLaren winner Norris a few miles behind. , finishing in 5th and 7th place, respectively.

Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-24

Photo credit: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

The setbacks mentioned above, and Sainz’s crash in the rain in Brazil, meant that Ferrari had to do a lot of work to overhaul McLaren, even though the Scuderia was in good shape for the title. Ta. They were held off by the surprisingly dominant Mercedes team in Las Vegas, and after this race, McLaren had the upper hand in Qatar, and there was no doubt that their chances of winning the world championship became more realistic.

However, setbacks for Norris in Qatar and Piastri in Abu Dhabi mean the 2024 title race is much closer than expected. All it took was for Sainz to find a way to steal the race from Norris, and for Piastri to finish 10th and not score any points, Ferrari ended up winning.

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That probably doesn’t mean much to Vasseur, who has often gone on record as hating “ifs” and “buts.” But Ferrari’s season was not only reeling from what could have been, but also a home win at Monza, a great final season for Leclerc and Sainz, and the team’s success in turning things around after the middle of the season. It was a season that should be remembered for its positive aspects as well. Development mistake.

“I’m very happy with what I did this year, how I improved throughout the year and how I responded to the challenges, but it’s disappointing because I was so close to winning the title,” Vasseur said on Sunday night.

“We had problems in Canada, then an update in Spain, then accidents in Singapore and Baku, but each time we came back stronger and that bodes very well for the future.”