McLaren vs Ferrari: A classic F1 constructors’ battle revived in 2024

The 2024 Formula 1 drivers’ title may have already gone the way of Max Verstappen when he joined the four-time champions club in Las Vegas, but the constructors’ battle is far from over.

Despite Verstappen taking his ninth win of the season at the penultimate round in Qatar, Red Bull bowed out of the constructors’ battle as there were just too few points on offer in the final round for them to stay in contention.

That leaves two teams – McLaren and Ferrari – in contention after 23 rounds. There’s a lot at stake for both teams, too. These titans of F1 have been battling over championships through many eras of the sport, and 2024 is just the latest in a long line of showdowns between the two.

Despite their status as two of F1’s most successful teams, it’s been some time since either of them came out on top of the pile in the constructors’ championship.

Ferrari is hunting its first constructors’ title since the pairing of Kimi Räikkönen and Felipe Massa bested McLaren in 2008.

For McLaren, it’s been even longer. If the Woking-based team claim the crown, it’ll be its first in a scarcely believable 26 years, the last coming by way of Mika Häkkinen and David Coulthard when they overcame Ferrari in 1998.

With far-reaching monetary implications for 2025 and beyond, this immense struggle to be crowned top team in 2024 will rage on until the chequered flag falls in Abu Dhabi.

READ MORE: What's still to be decided in F1's 2024 finale?

McLaren so far in 2024

After a shaky start to the campaign and only two podiums for Lando Norris in the opening five races, McLaren revelled in its upgrade package from the Miami Grand Prix onwards and even though a Safety Car ultimately secured Norris the victory, the papaya cars were on the pace all weekend.

From then on, the Woking-based team arguably had the quickest package on the grid, but Verstappen scraped a further three victories in Imola, Montreal and Barcelona with Norris finishing second each time.

Despite having the fastest cars on average, wins proved hard to come by for McLaren as other cars came on strong at different styles of circuits. Mercedes shone at the fast and flowing layouts like Silverstone and Spa, while straight-line speed favoured Ferrari late in the year at Monza, Circuit of the Americas and Mexico.  

Oscar Piastri took wins in Hungary – a dominant McLaren 1-2 albeit in controversial circumstances – and Azerbaijan, racking up more 25-point hauls for the team, as well as confirming himself as a contender who can hold his own with the best of them.

Crushing wins at Zandvoort and Singapore – each with over a 20-second margin – gave a window into what might have been for Lando in the drivers’ championship but once again, constructors’ points were stacking up in favour of McLaren.

Five Grand Prix wins from 23 races may not seem like many for the duo, but where they have really made the difference is in a relentless, unbroken chain of 14 podiums from China to Singapore. With 19 total podiums notched this year, consistency has been the name of McLaren’s game in 2024.

Ferrari so far in 2024

If McLaren took the lion’s share of wins and podiums in the mid-stage of the season, Ferrari has bookended that run. Remarkably, the Scuderia has taken the same number of wins and the same number of podiums as team papaya in 2024, and it has done so by being the more potent package in the earlier and latter stages of the campaign.

Having taken five podiums – including Carlos Sainz’s popular victory at Albert Park – from the first four events, Ferrari continued that run after a podiumless China by notching another four rostrums, including Charles Leclerc’s home win at Monaco.

A double DNF in Canada quickly put the brakes on Ferrari’s charge, and they scored just three podiums from Round 9 to Round 15.

Since a comprehensive upgrade package was brought to Monza though, the team has been back on song. Leclerc took another victory in front of the adoring tifosi that weekend, battled for the win a round later on the streets of Baku, then the Scuderia secured a 1-2 led by the Monégasque in Texas.

Sainz took to the top step of the podium once more in Mexico City – with Leclerc joining him in third – in what many speculated to be his final win for the team.

Those early and late-season surges have brought the scarlet cars right back into contention. While Norris has got caught up in drivers’ title shenanigans with Verstappen – like in Austria, Texas and Mexico – Sainz and Leclerc have largely stayed out of trouble.

At the penultimate round in Qatar, the racing gods smiled on Ferrari when Lando was handed a penalty for failing to slow under yellow flags, and that gave the Italian team the points it needed to be a very real threat at the season finale.  

How McLaren can win the Constructors' Championship in Abu Dhabi

McLaren currently hold a slim 21-point advantage over Ferrari, and with a maximum of 44 points left on the table, they can’t take their foot off the gas in Abu Dhabi.

If the papaya cars were to score 24 points or more at the Yas Marina Circuit, they’d guarantee themselves their first constructors' crown of the century. That can be achieved a number of ways; a race win, second and seventh, third and fifth and so on.

Obviously, if Ferrari isn’t fighting at the front in Abu Dhabi, then that takes the pressure off considerably.

How Ferrari can win the Constructors' Championship in Abu Dhabi 

Although Ferrari made inroads into McLaren’s lead at Qatar, it still wasn’t the amount it’d hoped for. With 21 points to make up, Carlos and Charles still face a mountain to climb.

The simplest way scarlet could come out ahead of papaya is for the former to score at least 22 points and the latter to fail to bring home any.

The more likely scenario of both McLarens scoring points makes life significantly harder. Then the Italian team would want both cars ahead and for Norris and Piastri to run into some kind of trouble.

If Ferrari found themselves in the dream 1-2 scenario and with the point for fastest lap, McLaren could still deny them the title if one car took the remaining step on the podium and the other finished fifth or higher. If the second car were to finish sixth, that would leave the teams tied on points with Ferrari taking it on countback.