Resurgent Ferrari on verge of return to the F1 summit

Finishing second in the constructors' championship is nothing new for Ferrari, it is the sixth time in the past decade the Italian team has claimed the runner-up spot.

However, for the first time in a long time, it feels like the Scuderia is right on the cusp. Not since 2008 has the Maranello-based squad clinched the constructors' crown, but there is an air of optimising enveloping the team.

Yes, in losing to McLaren it is now mired in its longest-ever F1 trophy drought, but the last time it finished second to the Woking outfit, in 1998, it went on to win six constructors' championships in a row.

To some, there is a sense that this year's title is one that got away. Red Bull proved a spent force, and McLaren was sluggish out the gate.

If it was not for the woeful Spanish Grand Prix upgrade package, or a couple of fateful moments across the season, things would have been oh so different come season's end.

Whataboutery is speculative by nature and rarely constructive, nor representative. Although, there is a stark difference between a season-defining wrong turn and a series of isolated moments, which is why the former and not the latter holds more weight in assessing the story of Ferrari's campaign.

It has been a year of growth and development at Maranello, and the long and the short of it, is that under the leadership of Frederic Vasseur, the Italian squad is a resurgent force in F1.

Lewis Hamilton will walk into a team considerably more ready for him next season that the one the Frenchman inherited two seasons ago.

For the main part, gone are the incomprehensible strategy calls and moments of incompetence. In reality, 2024 will not be viewed as one that got away, but rather a necessary and considered stepping stone back to summit of F1.

The pivotal point

Ferrari ended the year a mere 14 points behind McLaren in the constructors' standings. And with five wins to the Woking team's six, had Carlos Sainz been able to beat Lando Norris to the chequered flag in Abu Dhabi, that would have been the difference between second and first.

This underlines how close the season-finale was between the two teams - and there were other missed opportunities, too.

Had Charles Leclerc successfully fended off Oscar Piastri in Azerbaijan, or had Sainz and Sergio Perez not collected each other on the penultimate lap of the same race, things would have been different.

Then there is the calamitous weekend Ferrari suffered in Canada, its only pointless round of the season. However, as mentioned above, isolated events do not determine the course of a campaign, a mantra Vasseur maintained throughout the year.

 For every missed Ferrari opportunity, there is almost certainly a corresponding one for McLaren, so macro-level appraisal wins out.

For the Italian team, the inescapable truth remains that had it not ported the ultimately doomed update package to the SF-24 for the Spanish Grand Prix, it would not have needed to spend the subsequent six rounds, including the summer break trying to unwind and re-develop.

It was by far the leanest period of the season for the Scuderia, and whilst it came back with a vengeance from the Italian Grand Prix onwards, the damage was done.

Nonetheless, it has shown it can identify a developmental issue and rebuild on the fly, a considerably more daunting task in contemporary F1 than it sounds and something many of its rivals have yet to understand.

14 points and a win short or not, Ferrari stands in good stead to better its second place finish next term. However, it cannot be understated how instrumental Leclerc and Sainz were to the successes of 2024.

Nothing without the form of its drivers

Sainz spent the entirety of his final Ferrari campaign as a lame duck, but started the year like a bat out of hell.

The Spaniard was immediately in imperious form, as exemplified by his stunning victory in Melbourne only a couple of weeks after an appendectomy in Saudi Arabia and his dogged and determined podium finish in the season opener.

The 30-year-old was consistent, and relentless, in the face of an uncertain future. His ability to maintain his form, despite the speculation engulfing him was nothing short of remarkable, even if it was partly of his own making.

Early in the season, there were even suggestions that Ferrari had replaced the wrong driver, and that Leclerc should be the one making way for Hamilton.

Taking multiple victories in a campaign for the first time in his F1 career, Sainz proved he belongs at the sharp end of the grid, and the strength of his year is a testament to his character and ability.

The weekend he put together in Mexico City was nothing short of exceptional and one of the performances of the season - nobody could touch him.

As impressive as Ferrari's upward trajectory was over the course of 2024, it would have enjoyed a fraction of the success without the form of its two drivers.

Leclerc claimed landmark wins in Monaco and Monza, and arguably put together a better campaign than Lando Norris, who pipped him to second place in the drivers' championship.

Widely considered the fastest man in F1 over a single lap, he bolstered improved racecraft and pace over the course of the year. He will likely prove a formidable opponent - and team-mate - for the incoming Hamilton.