F1 2024 season review: Stake F1's campaign of misery

Team Hinwil entered the 2024 F1 campaign under a new name - gone was the sponsorship-led moniker of Alfa Romeo and in came Stake F1.

The rebrand was a flashy one with an exuberant marketing campaign, resulting in the launch of a new challenger with a flamboyant colour scheme.

Unfortunately, it would rarely be spotted by TV broadcasters as the car spent much of the year competing at the back end of the pecking order. Stake entered its third year with a driver line-up of Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu.

The only headlines generated in the early part of the season stemmed from a bizarre pit stop concern that resulted in embarrassingly long tyre changes.

The concerns of the pit stops were one of many, as ultimately, the car was too slow to compete in the midfield order. It didn't have the pace over one lap and points were only scored once in the season.

It was a disappointing campaign and its worst statistically since 2016.

Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu

In their third consecutive season together, Bottas and Zhou marked one of the grid's more seasoned driver line-ups.

However, the experience of racing alongside one another did little to boost its prospects for the campaign. Its early-season misery was offered a little respite in China when Bottas made it to Q3 and Zhou was able to bask in the support of the local crowd.

Setting aside its pit stop faults, its quest for championship points was dented right from qualifying. Throughout the entire campaign, it was a backmarker across one lap.

Zhou had 20 Q1 exits, while Bottas had 14. Bottas' Q3 appearance in China and another at the final round in Abu Dhabi marked the only time the team showed its face in the top 10 shootout.

Bottas had the measure of Zhou across the season across one lap, out-qualifying him 21 times to three. In the six sprint qualifying sessions, Bottas came out on top all but once.

Despite Bottas having a 14-10 advantage in the head-to-head battle in race trim, it was Zhou who scored the team's only points of the campaign.

The Chinese driver's eighth-place result came unexpectedly at the Qatar Grand Prix, offering a moment of celebration for Stake.

However, it had fallen too far behind the competition for it to make a difference in terms of its championship position. It resigned to finish at the back of the field for the second time in the last 10 years.

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Looking to commence a new era in 2025

The team underwent a management change during the campaign as former Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto took over from Andreas Seidl.

The alteration has come with its vision towards 2026 when the outfit will undergo a significant change as Audi completes its takeover.

However, Binotto has already conceded he is not expecting the squad to be in a place to challenge much further up the grid next year as it prepares for a new era.

There will be some sense of refreshment when the team lines up on the grid for the upcoming season with Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto. In a way, it mirrors the process the team took at the start of 2022 when it employed a veteran alongside a rookie.

However, Hulkenberg has long proven his worth in the midfield set-up and Bortoleto could well be the most exciting rookie on the grid next year having won back-to-back championships in Formula 2 and Formula 3.

Both will likely have already been briefed that they are likely to be lining up towards the back of the field as the Audi project continues to take shape.

Audi's route to success will be a long-term one and 2025 could bring about more pain before a look to improvement in the years ahead.

But if the team's goal for 2025 is to improve upon the last year, truthfully, the bar is quite low.