The winners and losers of the 2024 F1 season so far

As was the case after the first rounds in 2023, Red Bull Racing leads in the constructors' championship with ease.

While last year the Austrian outfit was leading Aston Martin and Mercedes after six races, it is now leading Ferrari and McLaren. In 2023, every team had grabbed at least one point after six races, but now Williams and Stake F1 are still awaiting their first points finishes.

Something to note is that in 2024, there have already been two sprint races while last year there was just one in the first six races.

Nevertheless, see below which teams are the big winners and which teams have to pick up the pace after a disappointing start.

Winners

Ferrari

Ferrari has been on the podium six times so far this year, while managing just one in the same period in 2023. Ferrari endured a difficult start to the season last year as Charles Leclerc crashed out twice in the first races of the year while Carlos Sainz received a penalty for his contact with Fernando Alonso in Australia.

Fortunes changed 12 months later as Sainz took full advantage of an issue for Max Verstappen and claimed his first win of the year early in the season in Melbourne. Charles Leclerc is 15 points ahead of Sainz in the standings, but that also includes the fact the Spaniard had to sit out the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix due to appendicitis. 

All in all, Ferrari is in a much better position with "only" a 52-point deficit to Red Bull.

McLaren

Another team doing much better compared to last year is McLaren. The 2023 start was downright dismal. Lando Norris managed a sixth place in Australia, but otherwise, he and Oscar Piastri had to make do with an uncompetitive car. 

After a major upgrade in Austria last year, things suddenly upturned for McLaren and the team was often the strongest challenger to Red Bull in the second half of the season.

At the start of 2024, it found itself in a good position once again, although podium finishes were not immediately on the cards. Norris changed that in Australia, and after a second-place finish in China, he took his first career victory in Miami. Piastri, meanwhile, has taken his points, but is still trailing team-mate Norris. The fact is, however, that McLaren has more than seven times as many points as last year after six races.

RB

The former AlphaTauri squad struggled immensely at the start of 2023. Nyck de Vries couldn't get up to speed and Yuki Tsunoda, entering his third season, clearly outclassed him - although the Japanese driver also had to dig deep to get a point. After six races, the tally stood at only two.

Tsunoda is still in the renamed RB team with Daniel Ricciardo alongside him. Again, the Japanese is the faster driver (for now) and has picked up significantly more points than the Australian, 14 to five.

Text continues below the table.

Losers

Mercedes

Mercedes seemed to make something of step forward in 2023, but the Brackley-based team failed to continue that momentum in 2024. Mercedes' best result this year was Lewis Hamilton's second place in the sprint race in China. George Russell managed to capture the most points, 10 in total, at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Last year, Mercedes had only grabbed one podium finish after the first six races, but it was clearly performing at a higher level. That's evidently different now, and what's more, the Brackley-based team had a disastrous Australian Grand Prix. Hamilton retired  due to engine problems, before Russell crashed out while chasing Fernando Alonso. Mercedes was just one point behind P2 in the constructors' championship after six races in 2023, and now Toto Wolff's team has to make do with fourth place.

Aston Martin

The surprise at the start of 2023 was Aston Martin. In the first six races of the year, Fernando Alonso was on the podium five times, providing a massive injection of points. While last year the Aston Martin was better in the race, in 2024 the challenger seems to be stronger over one lap.

The Spaniard has scored points at all grands prix so far, Lance Stroll, however, only managed top 10 results at two events. In Miami, the Silverstone-based team did not fire itself into gear and left the event with just two points. In fact, Aston Martin is the team that lost the most in terms of points compared to 2023.

Alpine

Alpine had a dramatic start to 2024 and it was clearly reflected on the track. Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly initially struggled to get out of Q1, but are now increasingly managing to do so. In Miami, Ocon even took the first point for the French squad this season, but that did not cause celebration.

But how different the situation looked a year ago - Alpine was neatly in fifth place, still ahead of McLaren. Ocon even grabbed a podium spot in race six. In Australia, the two Frenchmen ran into each other while they were able to grab a lot of points, distorting the picture a bit. But there's no doubt that need to improve greatly at Alpine.

Stake F1 Team

Perhaps the dullest team of them all and it shows in the performance - Stake F1. Zhou Guanyu may have attracted attention during his home race in China, but no points were taken there, as was the case for the rest of the 2024 races. Last year, Zhou took advantage of the chaos in Australia and Bottas picked up four points in Bahrain.

Stake F1's best result in 2024 in a grand prix is Zhou's 11th-place finish in Bahrain; Bottas has yet to get beyond P14. In the sprint race during his home race, the Chinese driver rose to P9, but even that was just short of a point.