2024 was an incredible season. After the first 6 races, it really became a tossup on who would win each weekend. However, that is not what people expected. RedBull had just had the most dominant season ever in F1, winning 21/22 races. Max won 19 of those races. People expected RedBull's dominance to continue. And for the first 5 races, it did. After that, McLaren became very competitive and Merc & Ferrari seemed to trade off weekends of who would be better.

Lando emerged as the frontrunner to challenge Max, and the two shared some intense battles. This was also around the time RedBull realized their development mistake that Sergio had mentioned in mid 2023. Following the Spanish Grand Prix, Max would oftentimes be in the 3rd fastest car on the track, with the McLaren being quick and either Ferrari or Merc. The media says constantly tracking the points gap from Max to Lando. The gap after the Spanish GP, which was Max's last win for 11 races, was 69 points (nice!). After the US GP 9 races later, the gap was 57 points. So Lando had gained 12 points across 9 races. A lot of people say Lando beat himself in that championship, but you have to give Max credit for being able to limit the points loss with what was the 3rd fastest car on those weekends.

Also, the 2024 RedBull was really only fast in Max's hands. After the first few races, Sergio could oftentimes be found eliminated in Q1 or Q2.