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With 24 races, and six sprints, in the 2024 Formula 1 season it’s difficult to keep track of the highs and lows. That’s why at The Race we’ve sifted through the 480 separate race drives of the season and picked a best and worst for every driver.
The criteria is broad, with the only limitation that we had to pick full grand prix drives - as opposed to sprints - and that every driver, no matter how good their worst Sunday and how bad their best, had to be included.
So here’s our selection of the best and worst race drive of all 24 drivers who raced in F1 this year.
JACK DOOHAN
Best/worst: Abu Dhabi (15th)
There’s only one race to choose from, but as we committed to selecting every driver’s best and worst Jack Doohan’s has to be one and the same. It was a solid, but unspectacular, start to his F1 career.
LOGAN SARGEANT
Best: Britain (11th)
This was arguably the best race of Logan Sargeant’s F1 career, even temporarily getting ahead of Alex Albon early then, running with his team-mate in the first stint. But for time lost in a double-stack pitstop, he might have had a shot at 10th.
Worst: Spain (20th)
Sargeant’s race pace was abject in Spain as he struggled badly with tyre management and was miles off team-mate Albon’s performance level. In Sargeant’s own words, his run to a twice-lapped 20th was “a disaster”.
VALTTERI BOTTAS
Best: China (DNF)
Valtteri Bottas’s race only lasted 19 laps, but he was firmly in the hunt for a points finish before a Ferrari power unit problem eliminated him. When trouble hit, he was running with Nico Hulkenberg, who finished 10th.
Worst: Abu Dhabi (DNF)
If this is Bottas’s last grand prix, it wasn’t a good one. He lost ground on the first lap after a great qualifying performance, picked up a penalty for a clash with Sergio Perez then removed himself with damage suffered when he clobbered Kevin Magnussen.
LIAM LAWSON
Best: Brazil (9th)
In hindsight, this might have been the race that won Red Bull over. While Liam Lawson wasn’t quite as on it as Yuki Tsunoda, he coped very well with awful conditions, was quick, and outraced Lewis Hamilton and Perez to score points.
Worst: Laz Vegas (16th)
Just not comfortable with the car on (another) new track. The team started on the backfoot but Tsunoda gradually got on top of things and left Lawson behind. On-the-limit battles in the race was about the only notable thing he did the whole weekend.
ZHOU GUANYU
Best: Qatar (8th)
An obvious choice, but one he agrees with, Zhou Guanyu didn’t put a foot wrong in taking Sauber’s only points of the year with eighth place. He rose from 15th at the end of the first lap, reminding everyone that he’s not a no-hoper.
Worst: Monaco (16th)
There’s not much anyone can do starting 18th at Monaco. But Zhou struggled for pace on the street track and managed to be overtaken on track by Sargeant on his way to last place.
FRANCO COLAPINTO
Best: Azerbaijan (8th)
Eighth place in only his second outing was impressive in itself, but it required a well-executed race drive to deliver it. It wasn’t the easiest race, and understandably his hard-tyre stint was a challenge, but in the circumstances it was an impressive run.
Worst: Brazil (DNF)
There are plenty of mitigating factors, including it being his first race in proper wet conditions in F1 and the fact he was having to push to catch the pack, but shunting heavily under the safety car is a big no-no.
OLLIE BEARMAN
Best: Saudi Arabia (7th)
Called up at the last minute and missed Friday practice, on a daunting high-speed street track, with the pressure of representing Ferrari…and Ollie Bearman didn’t put a foot wrong on his way to an assured points finish. It’s hard to imagine making a better first impression.
Worst: Brazil (12th)
Bearman was rapid on his last race appearance of 2024, but he was way too erratic on his wet debut. He spun three times and went off once more in a race that should have ended in points for him and Haas, but didn’t.
DANIEL RICCIARDO
Best: Canada (8th)
Set back by a jump start penalty caused by clutch drag (not his fault), and the timing of his first pitstop, Daniel Ricciardo made minimal errors in a tricky race to get back into the points. It’s a shame Jacques Villeneuve didn’t insult him more often.
Worst: Miami (15th)
If sprint races meant anything, the Miami sprint would be Ricciardo’s best. But they don’t. Instead, the Florida main event is his worst. A terrible contrast to his great Saturday and a limp race in which he never looked like he’d make up ground - and didn’t.
ALEX ALBON
Best: Silverstone (9th)
The Williams was quick at Silverstone, but after starting ninth Albon picked up front wing damage in a first-lap concertina. Even so, he showed good speed particularly after a front wing adjustment to fix the balance problem, producing a strong final stint to overtake Tsunoda for ninth place.
Worst: USA (16th)
Clobbering Esteban Ocon at the start after getting stuck in the ‘middle lane’ into Turn 1 forced a first-lap front wing change. He also picked up floor damage in that first-corner clash when the luckless Bottas couldn’t avoid hitting him, restricting Albon to rolling around in the lower order.
KEVIN MAGNUSSEN
Best: Mexico (7th)
The peak of a generally very good end-of-season run that at least allowed Magnussen to bow out of F1 (again) on a high. Mexico was a midfield masterclass akin to Hulkenberg’s at Silverstone.
Worst: Miami (19th)
A weekend at his belligerent and self-justifying worst. He went too far with his defensive driving supposedly trying to aid Hulkenberg’s points bid in the sprint (which the team was unhappy about!) and crashed needlessly with Sargeant in the grand prix.
ESTEBAN OCON
Best: Brazil (2nd)
Amid his late-season struggles came this Ocon classic, qualifying well in the wet and then running third after passing Tsunoda just before the safety car was deployed. A 'free' pitstop under the red flag helped, but he built a handy lead over Max Verstappen before another safety car allowed the Red Bull driver to relegate him to second.
Worst: Monaco (DNF)
A needless lunge on Pierre Gasly at Portier on the first lap led to contact and damage that prevented Ocon taking the restart. Considering he’d been instructed multiple times not to attack his team-mate, this race couldn’t have gone much worse for him.
LANCE STROLL
Best: Bahrain (10th)
After getting tipped into a spin at Turn 1 by Hulkenberg, Lance Stroll staged a clean and effective recovery from last place to take a point for 10th.
Worst: Saudi Arabia (DNF)
You could argue Brazil should be selected, but given Stroll crashed and then drove into the gravel before even starting the race it doesn’t make the cut. That leaves Saudi Arabia, where Stroll was slow and fell away from the top eight before crashing out.
YUKI TSUNODA
Best: Japan (10th)
This was a brilliantly hard-fought 10th-place for Tsunoda, who was not only quick at Suzuka but also had to be incisive on track to make his strategy work. He did that superbly, with his move around the outside of Hulkenberg, albeit with a big grip advantage, the highlight.
Worst: Mexico (DNF)
Desperate to make amends for a costly qualifying crash on Saturday, Tsunoda put his car in needless peril on the run to Turn 1 and - unsurprisingly - paid the price. Gave his critics within Red Bull easy ammo to use against him, too.
NICO HULKENBERG
Best: Britain (6th)
He actually underachieved a little in qualifying in a nicely upgraded Haas, but did no such thing in the race, which – after a slightly iffy start – was as emphatic a ‘I am going to boss this midfield battle’ performance as anyone produced all season.
Worst: Italy (17th)
Lost ground at the start, fell to 16th then needed a front-wing change after going on the grass trying to get back ahead of Ricciardo, and finally got a penalty when he locked up and clattered into Tsunoda. Everything that could go wrong, did.
PIERRE GASLY
Best: Azerbaijan (12th)
Gasly actually picked this without hesitation when we asked him for his best race – and we agree. Finished 12th and almost half a minute outside the points, but reckons nobody would have been any faster in that car on the day.
Worst: Singapore (17th)
Second-best to Ocon and tried a doomed strategy after qualifying poorly. That made it look worse, and left him right at the back, but it was a dreadful race. And came just a week after that Baku high, so stung even more.
FERNANDO ALONSO
Best: Italy (11th)
We’ve gone with Fernando Alonso’s own selection on this, as when he was asked for his highlights he said “the best drive was Monza for the race and China for qualifying”. That he finished 11th at Monza, only denied points by a second or two, tells you all about the pace of the Aston Martin.
Worst: Emilia Romagna (19th)
An FP3 crash put him on the back foot but in the race he was strangely subdued, making almost no progress beyond undercutting his way past Sargeant.
SERGIO PEREZ
Best: Saudi Arabia (2nd)
It would be Azerbaijan but Perez could have done more to avoid a race-wrecking late clash with Carlos Sainz. His most convincing work came in Red Bull’s early one-twos, especially Saudi Arabia - although being 0.23s per lap slower than Verstappen shows even then he was kept at arm’s length.
Worst: Belgium (7th)
No shortage of options in Perez’s annus horribilis but nothing so limp as, when under pressure with Red Bull considering dropping him, and Verstappen out of the picture with a grid penalty, Perez turned a front row start into a distant last in class.
LEWIS HAMILTON
Best: Silverstone (1st)
This was a race several drivers could have won, but it was Hamilton who pulled it off with a well-executed drive, proving he had a race-pace advantage over his team-mate and managing his soft tyres well late on.
Worst: Brazil (10th)
Hamilton couldn’t hide his lack of enthusiasm at Interlagos and his race performance in conditions where he usually excelled was bafflingly flat as he took 10th place.
GEORGE RUSSELL
Best: Spa (DSQ)
He got nothing for it, but while excluded from first for his car being underweight, his one-stop drive was a masterclass. With a tyre disadvantage, he had to be inch-perfect to keep Hamilton behind and he did so brilliantly.
Worst: Italy (7th)
A first-corner misjudgment meant George Russell went off, clipping the marker board as he rejoined and suffered front-wing damage. His recovery to seventh was well-executed but that double-error at the start severely compromised his race.
CARLOS SAINZ
Best: Mexico (1st)
This was the best of Sainz's two wins because of his crushing superiority. Charles Leclerc fancied his chance of being quicker on race day, but it was Sainz who nailed it despite having to retake the lead after dropping behind Verstappen.
Worst: Canada (DNF)
Everything that could go wrong did go wrong as he picked up early front wing damage then spun while in the mix for a lower-points finish, wiping out Albon in the process.
OSCAR PIASTRI
Best: Azerbaijan (1st)
Oscar Piastri’s Azerbaijan victory narrowly beats his unheralded Miami GP performance, given he turned second into first with a brilliantly opportunistic pass on Leclerc. With McLaren urging him not to work the tyres too hard early in the stint, Piastri knew he had to attack to have any chance.
Worst: Spain (7th)
Although Piastri did a tidy enough job to finish seventh, the fact is he was nowhere on pace compared to Norris, who challenged Verstappen for victory.
CHARLES LECLERC
Best: USA (1st)
His Monza one-stop victory gets the most plaudits but while the Ferrari was fast, Leclerc’s tyre management in winning at Austin was arguably more impressive. Few drivers could have produced such a well-executed win.
Worst: Austria (11th)
In a season of strong race drives, Austria is the worst because of his foolhardy car-positioning at the start, which led to him being pincered between Piastri and Perez. The damage forced a first-lap pitstop and he could only recover to 11th.
LANDO NORRIS
Best: Zandvoort (1st)
Both McLarens got a slow start, so losing the lead shouldn’t be held against Norris this time. It presented some adversity to overcome, which Norris did spectacularly. This was as assured as Abu Dhabi, with the dominance of Singapore.
Worst: Belgium (5th)
Qatar featured Norris’s most costly blunder but Spa was a worse self-inflicted missed opportunity. A slightly weak start turned into a silly error exiting the first corner, and a quick but untidy race followed - letting Verstappen beat him despite starting seven places behind.
MAX VERSTAPPEN
Best: Brazil (1st)
While he was assisted by the red flag and resulting ‘free’ tyre change, Verstappen’s victory from 17th on the grid was a masterclass of wet-weather driving.
Worst: Hungary (5th)
There were worse results than his fifth at the Hungaroring, and worse mistakes than his collision with Hamilton. But Verstappen’s sustained fury at his team clouded his performance and compromised his result as he slipped back from second in the early laps.
