Formula One | A topsy-turvy first half sets up for an intriguing home stretch Premium

The Hindu's mid-term report card on the 2024 Formula One season highlights winners, losers, and key developments.

The 2024 Formula One season marks an important moment in the sport’s history.

This year is the 75th edition of the championship that started in 1950 and will be the longest, with 24 races across five continents.

Following the recently concluded Belgian Grand Prix, more than half the season is done after 14 races, and teams have now headed into a much-needed month-long summer break.

So now is a good time to analyse the season that has gone by, and in this mid-term report card, The Hindu looks at the big winners and losers.

Winners: The Fans

Interest in F1 peaked in 2021 when Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton were locked in an intense championship battle that went down till the last lap of the last race of the year and was decided under controversial circumstances.

Since then, the fans have been starved of a proper championship battle in the previous two years as Verstappen cruised to his second and third driver’s championship in a canter.