F1 data winners and losers: Which teams made major gains in 2024?

The F1 2024 season has been one of the most evenly matched for 12 years. All the teams have improved their cars compared to 2023 thanks to the continuity of regulations that will last until the end of 2025, but some have seen their evolution relatively stagnate.

But who have been the big winners and losers in this year’s overall performance evolution?

F1 data: Who were the biggest time gainers from the 2024 season?

To measure the improvement or deterioration in performance of each team in 2024 compared to 2023, we have based ourselves on the qualifying data of those sessions that can be directly compared to each other.

It is true that some events such as Azerbaijan or Japan have been held at different times of the year compared to 2023, but the conditions have been the same for all teams, so this data has not been discarded as we are looking at a comparison and not an absolute measurement of gains or losses for an specific team.

Results from China, Emilia Romagna due to lack of references in 2023 and Belgium and Canada have been discarded due to rain, which makes the qualifying data unrepresentative for direct comparison.

Race pace is a much more complicated performance data to measure because of its dependence on external agents such as different strategies, eventual race situations, etc. Therefore, for a fair measurement only the one lap pace in qualifying has been used, which is much less influenced by these distortions or eventualities.

10: Alpine

Despite finishing sixth in the Constructors’ Championship thanks to a miraculous double podium finish in Brazil by Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly, the Enstone-based team was the team to gain the least time compared to last season.

Alpine’s estimated improvement this season is -0.662s compared to 2023, the lowest on the grid. Furthermore, its gap to the fastest car in the pack has increased by +0.242s on average compared to last season.

That said, the last events of 2024 have been very positive and are a great hope for 2025 with Gasly in tremendous form.

Even so, an extremely poor start to the year has meant that Alpine’s data places them at the bottom of the 2024 performance evolution rank despite this great end to the season fighting to be the top team in the midfield. They are one of the teams with more room for improvement for 2025.

9: Aston Martin

Only Alpine’s horrible start to the year has saved them from being at the very bottom. Still dragging a slight performance advantage over their rivals from 2023, the AMR24 performance has gone from strength to strength this season. A completely opposite trend to Alpine, for example.

With good qualifying performances at the beginning of the season and Fernando Alonso saving the day at key moments, the Silverstone-based team has certainly been one of the big losers of 2024 with others improving around them.

They have gone from being +0.759s off the fastest car on average to +0.959s, a drop of two tenths of a second in relative performance in qualifying, strangely their biggest strength this year.

And yes, the car has improved -0.708s on average compared to 2023, but it is only ahead of Alpine as the least evolved car. And the trend for 2025 does not appear particularly promising in what is the last year of the current technical regulations, with all eyes on 2026.

8: Kick Sauber

A very disappointing season for Kick Sauber, with only a glimmer of hope in the final two races of 2024. Their consistency at the bottom of the field has seen them finish at the back of the grid in the Championship.

It was the team with the most room for improvement for this year and has ended up as the third team with the worst performance evolution. In other words, they still haven’t found the right development path… although Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu’s end of the season was not as poor as the previous 22 races.

Despite this, Kick Sauber has improved -0.772s on average their lap times compared to 2023… but they have worsened their gap to the fastest car on the grid. From +1.392s in 2023 to +1.577s in 2024, a total loss of +0.185s.

7: Red Bull

Red Bull has suffered from the big improvement of other teams and the consequent loss of its dominance compared to 2023. From being the clear benchmark with only +0.097s on average over the fastest car in 2023 to increasing this gap to +0.173s on average.

Despite this, the Milton Keynes-based team has the best qualifying average this season. All this, in large part, thanks to the first seven consecutive poles achieved by Max Verstappen at the beginning of 2024 and with the Dutch driver maximising all results in every qualifying session that has been contested since then.

Red Bull has improved -0.831s on average over 2023, making it the fourth worst team in this respect. This shows that the room for improvement was very limited and despite a great start, the introduction of upgrades to compensate for the big improvements of teams like McLaren has not been enough.

Will they be able to make further strides in 2025 or will they be even more limited after a slightly more hopeful end to the season? Undoubtedly, they are one of the big unknowns for the final season of a regulation set where they seemed to be unrivalled until the Miami GP.

6: Ferrari

The change of philosophy in terms of the general concept of their 2023 car has meant that their 2024 challenger has taken a small step backwards in qualifying in exchange for a clear leap forward in the race. An overall gain that has allowed them to fight for the Constructors’ Championship until the end.

From being +0.271s away from pole in 2023, the Italian team has increased this gap to +0.288s. This means an absolute improvement of just +0.017s, putting them in sixth place in the 2024 performance evolution. This is a relative improvement on their 2023 best lap times of -0.891s on average.

If Ferrari can balance their car’s performance in 2025 and find the middle ground between qualifying and race performance… They are the clear favourites for the Constructors’ Championship next season with Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton in red.

5: Williams

No man’s land. That’s where Williams is at the moment. As the team with the third most room for improvement in qualifying compared to 2023, the team led by James Vowles has only managed to close the gap to the front of the grid by -0.027s on average.

By improving its 2023 best lap times by -0.935s on average in 2024, the Grove-based team still has the potential to uncover at least two to three tenths of a second by 2025 to be in the mid-table fight against Aston Martin, Alpine, Haas and Racing Bulls.

4: Mercedes

Mercedes finally found some positives in this difficult regulatory era, by their high standards, for the Silver Arrows. With a car that has started to work properly with low track temperatures and taking advantage of the mistakes of the top teams, the W15 has reduced the gap to the fastest by -0.037s on average this season.

An insufficient number in the quest to find the way back to the Championship, but with positive data such as an improvement of -0.945s on average compared to 2023.

Of the ‘Big Four’, it is probably the team with the most room for improvement still to be squeezed out ahead of 2025 in terms of qualifying pace, along with Ferrari.

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3: Haas

The American team has been one of the biggest positive surprises of 2024. From being at the back of the grid, they have made a leap in quality that has made them fight until the last race in Abu Dhabi for sixth place in the Constructors’ Championship.

It is true that in 2023, Haas was not the worst team in terms of qualifying pace. Nor has it been the most improved team among its closest rivals in this respect. Execution and race pace has been Haas’ biggest improvement in this particular case.

However, Ayao Komatsu’s team has gone from being +1.198s off the fastest car on average to slightly bettering the second by just three thousandths of a second in 2024 to make a -0.195s improvement to the fastest car of the grid. The 2024 car has also improved by -1.132s on average over last season’s times.

2: Racing Bulls

Without making much noise, the Faenza and Milton Keynes based team was the second best performing team in terms of performance evolution. The Red Bull junior team has improved its lap times by -1.155s on average compared to 2023 and has dropped the average gap to the fastest car by -0.235s.

Despite this big improvement, which also resulted in almost twice as many points as in 2023, Racing Bulls finished eighth in the Constructors’ Championship again, just like last season.

They have improved a lot, but rivals ahead and behind them have also improved enough to make their improvement less effective, especially in performance and execution during races.

1: McLaren

You didn’t need to look at the data and analyse all the numbers this year to see that. The recent Constructors’ Championship champions have made an incredible leap in performance compared to 2023.

From being +0.689s off the fastest car on average last year, the gap has narrowed by -0.466s to +0.223s on average in qualifying. With -1.374s average improvement over its 2023 car, McLaren is the team that has improved the most in performance evolution over the last 12 months and also secured its first Constructors’ Championship since 1998 in the way.

Despite these incredibly positive figures, the only downside is that going into 2025 they are likely to be the team with the least room for improvement on the grid. But there is no doubt that Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will once again be in contention for regular victories.

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