Following an eye-catching first half of the year, it is no wonder that McLaren have improved the most in terms of championship points compared to the previous season. F1Technical's lead journalist Balazs Szabo reflects on the first part of the season.

Improving form

McLaren has displayed the biggest improvement so far, having scored a whopping 255 points more so far compared to the same period of 2023.

In the first 14 races in his rookie season, Oscar Piastri failed to finish in the top three and scored points only in five races. By contrast, the Australian secured his maiden F1 triumph at Mogyoród, and stood on the rostrum in three other races.

His team-mate Lando Norris scored only two podium finishes in the first 14 races last year, and scored points in seven other races. By contrast, he secured his maiden F1 victory in Miami this year, and scored seven further podium finishes.

Despite the issues with its recent upgrade package, Ferrari achieved a big improvement, having collected 134 points more than in the same period of last season.

Ferrari endured a difficult start to its 2023 campaign, with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz having only scored three and one podium finish respectively.

In the same period of 2024, the Monegasque has already won a race and added four other podium finishes to his tally. The Spaniard has also been victories this year, and stood on the podium in four other races.

Mercedes has also scored more points compared to the first 14 races in 2023. Interestingly, the Brackley-headquartered outfit has only scored 11 points more than last year. It might be surprising given the fact that Mercedes appears to have improved the most in terms of pure pace in the past weeks which led to three victories in the last four races.

The first 14 races of 2023 saw Hamilton score four podium finishes while Russell only one. By contrast, the latter has already won a race this year and added another podium finish to his tally. The seven-time world champion driver has been victories two times this year and stood on the podium on two other occasions.

Haas had expected to struggle this year, but the team has displayed a much stronger form so far this season than initially feared. Compared to 11 points in the first 14 races of 2023, the American outfit has already scored 27 points so far.

Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg finished in the points on seven occasions, but their biggest points hauls came at the Red Bull Ring and at Silverstone where the German driver finished in sixth.

AlphaTauri scored only three points in the opening 14 rounds last season, but the team that is referred to as Visa Cash RB this year has already scored 34 points.

Dip in performance

Although the opening part of the season indicated that {Red Bull Racing} might continue its dominance in the 2024 Formula 1 season, things have massively changed since then.

Reigning world champion Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez kicked off the year with a dominant one-two at the Bahrain Grand Prix with the Dutchman continuing his fine form by winning three of the next four races.

However, after the Chinese Grand Prix, the 2024 Formula 1 season has become a three or even four-horse race in recent races, but Red Bull is keen to re-assert its dominance.

The Milton Keynes-based outfit scored 540 points after the first 14 races last year while they scored 132 points less this year. Verstappen won twelve races in this period last year compared to ‘only’ seven victories this year. His team-mate Perez scored two victories and six further podium finished in the opening 14 races last year compared to just four podium places this season.

Aston Martin has endured a big setback this season. While Fernando Alonso scored six podium finishes in the opening seven races of the season in 2023, the Silverstone-based team's best result of 2024 has been the Spaniard's fifth-place finish at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The team has scored only 73 points over the course of the opening 14 races compared to last year's tally of 217 championship units.

Alpine looked relatively strong last year, having added 73 points in the first 14 races, but the Enstone-based outfit's issues with its overweight and aerodynamically inefficient car has seen them score 11 points so far.

Williams have also endured a significant dip in performance this year compared to last year. The Grove-based outfit scored 21 points in the opening 14 races thanks to Alexander Albon's five point-scoring finishes. By contrast, the team has only secured four points so far this season courtesy of the Thai drivers' ninth-placed finishes in Monaco and Silverstone.

Kick Sauber has endured the biggest drop in performance so far. The Hinwil-based outfit that is set to become Audi's works entry in 2026 is the only team yet to score a single point in 2024. In the opening 14 races of 2023, the team that ran under the banner of Alfa Romeo, added 10 points to its tally with Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu having scored on three and two occasions respectively.