ONES TO WATCH - F1 drivers who have it all to prove in 2024
We are in 2024 now, which means that a new season awaits for the world's best 20 drivers to take on 24 of some of the world's most tough, technical and tricky race tracks in 22 countries across the globe.
With an unchanged line-up from the year preceding, there are some drivers who are lucky to receive a contract extension and have a lot to prove to their teams to show that they should be kept for 2025 around the F1 circus. On the other hand, you have drivers who have had a solid 2023 and are looking to build on that and make 2024 a more spectacular season and truly etch themselves as one of F1's best drivers who are world championship material.
Here are some drivers that we should look out for in the upcoming season:
Logan Sargeant
America's only F1 driver on the grid has secured himself a second season in the highest level of motorsport. The American had a tricky 2023, getting wiped in the qualifying head to head against his team-mate Alex Albon, whom he had not outqualified even once throughout the 22 races held last year and constantly rotting towards the back end of the field even when Alex is comfortably fighting for points.
Though he has shown promises of speed that he is capable of achieving, with Q3 appearances in Zandvoort and Las Vegas with the latter seeing him line up at an impressive 6th position on the grid right behind his team-mate. In the races, he has had two good ones, with an 11th place finish in Britain and his solitary world championship point being earned at the Circuit of the Americas even if it was through the disqualifications of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.
With glimpses of potential being shown, the key thing that Logan will be wanting to do is to achieve such results at a consistent basis and be closer to his team-mate Albon. If he can manage that, Williams will surely consider him to stay for 2025.
Sergio Perez
The "King of the Streets" has had an incredibly rocky 2023 season, where he drove the most dominant car in F1 history but didn't show it like that.
Failing to make the top 3, let alone the top 10 was prominent in qualifying while his team-mate Verstappen just went on to be in the fight for pole every race bar one.
If the Austrian outfit can replicate a car as close as to the performance they have had last year, Checo must always be in the hunt for podiums and wins as that is the bare minimum that a driver at the top team in a top car should be doing.
If he fails to do that and has a season similar or even worse, if he can even manage that, than 2023 then Helmut Marko and Christian Horner may take a look at the opposite end of the pit-lane for the driver next on the list...
Daniel Ricciardo
The Honey Badger is now into his first full season back in Formula 1. With his 2023 season being hampered by a wrist injury he sustained during a free practice session in Zandvoort after an attempt to avoid the McLaren of Oscar Piastri, he has shown that he has still got what it takes to perform with a car he is comfortable with in Mexico, where he qualified in 4th and finished well in the points.
His eyes are fixated on returning to Red Bull, a team he has successfully partnered with in the past, amassing 7 wins and 29 podiums during his five seasons with the Milton Keynes outfit from 2014 to 2018.
With Sergio Perez's poor 2023 season, he will have to perform in the Alpha Tauri Racing Bulls team next season to impress the likes of Horner and Marko and hopefully land one last dance with the world champions.
Yuki Tsunoda
Now in his 4th year in F1, Yuki still finds himself in a position where he has to impress to prove that he deserves more time in F1.
Though his 2023 season was a positive step forward from his first two relatively mediocre seasons, both of which where he got outperformed by team-mate Pierre Gasly, it was still concerning that Kiwi Liam Lawson was able to be near and match his pace despite being shoved in to his first F1 Grand Prix weekend quite last minute.
Though it can be forgiven that he could match his experienced team-mate Daniel Ricciardo, Yuki should be expected to beat his experienced team-mate in order to show his team that he is indeed a future prospect for F1 and could one day have what it takes to be at the top.
If he fails to do so, Alpha Tauri have already got the man to fill in the seat with reserve driver Liam Lawson waiting patiently for a spot to open on the F1 grid.
With the Kiwi's impressive loan spell in 2023, Yuki will be more pressured to perform this year and get the 2025 contract, or even catch the eye of Red Bull.
Fernando Alonso
The Spaniard will want the Aston Martin to be one of the fastest cars on the field again, unlike in the mid part of 2023 where it sunk into the midfield fighting for only single digit points.
If Aston Martin do manage to do that, then it will be no surprise if Fernando can finally pull off the elusive 33rd win that he has been yearning for for the last decade since the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix.
Oscar Piastri
F1's best rookie in a long while. Oscar had an impressive 2023, managing 2 podiums as well as an F1 Sprint victory at Qatar that took everybody by surprise.
The young Aussie will be hoping to build on what he learnt and be able to be closer to his team-mate Lando Norris and hopefully get more podiums should the McLaren allow it to happen.
Oscar has stated that the aspect he will have to work on is consistency, stating that "World Champions don't succeed with one or two good weekends."
If he can work on it and attain it, then 2024 could be an exciting year for the McLaren driver as he has shown last year that he can perform at a top level and capitalize when the opportunity arises in races such as Britain, Hungary, Japan and Qatar.
Lando Norris
Well established to lead the McLaren team next season, Lando Norris is hoping that in his sixth year in the game, he will finally achieve that first Grand Prix win that he has been desperate to get since that tragic afternoon under the clouds in Sochi.
The Woking team looked like the biggest threat to steal race wins off the dominant Red Bull of Max Verstappen, with Lando finishing 2nd on several occasions behind the Dutchman meaning that should the opportunity arise where Max encounters difficulties or issues, he will be the first driver there to pick up the scraps if he is at the right place at the right time.
If McLaren can make a car that is on the high end of the order, we can be more than sure that the youthful Lando Norris, in his steaming hot form, will be there to garner consistent podiums and maybe a victory.
Charles Leclerc
Will this year finally be the year where Charles Leclerc and Ferrari finally conquer the difficult task of dethroning the dominant Red Bull team?
With the Ferrari team seemingly taking a step back in 2023 on the back of a 2022 season that saw them challenge for the world championship for the first half of the season, they bounced back in the 2nd half of the season with Leclerc getting podiums in an understeery SF-23 that didn't really suit his typical oversteery driving style.
If Ferrari does build a car that can be proper race winners as they have been in the past, it will be one thing. The other will be about developing the car throughout the season to keep up with the competition and not end up like 2018, where they took a step back at a crucial stage of the season and got dominated by Mercedes.
I use the term "if" very loosely as the Maranello team have shown incompetency throughout the last decade and more so to Leclerc, with strategy blunders and reliability issues costing the Monegasque driver off wins and podiums in the last few season.
If they manage to learn from their past mistakes, they could put in a solid challenge to the top end of the field and if it does happen, you can bet that Charles, who is arguably the closest to Verstappen's level on the grid in terms of new gen drivers, will definitely be there to get good results should his luck allow it.
Max Verstappen
He's Max Verstappen.
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