Five unsung heroes of F1 in 2024

Fernando Alonso

One of the greatest talents ever to sit in an F1 cockpit is enduring a wasted year. How many times have we said that over the past decade? In his 21^st season in motor sport’s top tier, Fernando Alonso once again finds himself in an F1 car he doesn’t deserve. Aston Martin’s decline, after the encouraging rise in 2023, is alarming – not least for a driver who, at 43, is clearly running out of time.

Alonso’s best finish from the 18 races so far this season is a solitary fifth, scored way back in round two in Saudi Arabia. Yet just as he did in those desperate fallow years at McLaren, the Spaniard has overdelivered. He’s scored minor points in 12 of the 18 races, has 62 compared to team-mate Lance Stroll’s 24 and has outqualified his team-mate two-thirds of the time – even though outright qualifying pace is supposedly a ‘weakness’ (such a term should be treated as relative when it comes to Alonso).

Some have said he’s underperforming this year by his own sky-high standards. But is that really true? Having recommitted to Aston Martin for two more seasons, in the wake of speculation that he could switch to Mercedes or even Red Bull, he’s clearly frustrated by the green team’s floundering form. But he’s kept a lid on his emotions and, bar a few minor errors, has consistently maximised what little he’s got under him. You can’t ask for much more than that.

Alonso's admitted newly-signed Adrian Newey’s influence might come too late for him – although at 45 in the rules reset year of 2026, a bet on Alonso scoring a 33^rd grand prix win must be worth a flutter. But if the team can reset and find its way back to the right path as early as next season, the two-time champion will be ready to strike again.

Incidentally, Don Quixote was a pseudonym created by the lead character himself in Miguel de Cervantes’ 17^th century novel. His real name? Alonso Quijano.

Franco Colapinto

Argentina’s first F1 points scorer since Carlos Reutemann is the surprise of the season. An unremarkable record in the junior formulae didn’t bode for much, but since he found himself parachuted into Williams as a replacement for the hapless Logan Sargeant, Franco Colapinto has proved something of a revelation.

Immediately at Monza he made a good first impression, in what was an assured F1 debut. Then in Baku he recovered from what could have been a confidence-smashing crash in practice to outqualify highly-rated team-mate Alex Albon – by three-tenths of a second no less – and went on to achieve what Sargeant had conspicuously failed to do this year: put points on the board for his team, with a fine eighth.

So suddenly, Colapinto is on the map. Williams has Carlos Sainz Jr. incoming for 2025, but there’s talk of the 21-year-old claiming a vacant seat at Sauber. If the future Audi team already has experience covered in the shape of Hülkenberg, will it and should it take a risk on a rookie? And if so, is the man of the moment the right choice?

Whatever the case, Colapinto deserves huge credit for placing himself in the conversation at all, out of relative obscurity.

Nico Hülkenberg

Speaking of tilting at windmills. Nico Hülkenberg’s persistence in F1 is off the charts. Fourteen years since his grand prix debut, the German has raced 221 times (and counting), has yet to reach the podium, but remains in demand. Called back by Haas last year, Hülkenberg will return to Sauber next season – a team he last drove for in 2013 – in preparation for its transition into the factory Audi team for 2026. And he’s earned that show of faith by serving his current team with admirable commitment.

Hülkenberg is second in ‘Class B’ this term, currently 10^th in the drivers’ championship, equal on points with Stroll and 38 behind ninth-place Alonso. In contrast, team-mate Kevin Magnussen has only six points. Sure, the team’s 2025 driver Oliver Bearman got one over on him when the 19-year-old stepped in for the banned Magnussen in Baku. But overall, Hülkenberg deserves the credit he has been given for contributing to Haas’s revival in form this season. At 37, there’s plenty of mileage left in the tank.

Whether he ever lands a podium is another question, given the mountain Sauber must climb from its current basecamp at the foot of F1. But Hülkenberg appears at ease with his place in F1. And unlike Magnussen, at least he’s got one.

Yuki Tsunoda

This is a season in danger of tailing off for Yuki Tsunoda since his impressive run of points finishes in the first half of the year. But the Japanese driver is still one of the most improved in F1, as far as we’re concerned.

He’s been used as a yardstick against which Daniel Ricciardo was measured – and obviously, given the Aussie has found himself dropped from the RB team, that’s a test Tsunoda has passed. Conclusively, too.

But now he faces a fresh and what might well prove a tougher challenge, from incoming Kiwi Liam Lawson. Tsunoda’s problem is that Red Bull doesn’t appear to take him seriously as a genuine prospect for a place in its A-team beside Max Verstappen. The only hope of changing that perception is to now outperform the highly-rated Lawson.

Yet even if he does so, will he ever be given the chance he craves? Or will Tsunoda be forced to change tack to continue his F1 journey? Honda switches to Aston Martin for 2026, although unless immoveable Stroll decides to takes a walk an opening at the Silverstone team looks unlikely. There’s a sense this could be a career that’s plateaued, whatever he does next.

Valtteri Bottas

Speaking of unexpected, how the taciturn Finn has reinvented himself since leaving Mercedes as a genuinely funny character who absolutely doesn’t take himself too seriously is one of our favourite surprise developments in F1. The moustache and mullet, the stream of comedy social media posts, that Uber Carshare ad – hilarious, especially in the context of what we thought we previously knew of Bottas. Suddenly, Valtteri Bottas is interesting.

But we shouldn’t mistake Bottas’s joie de vivre as a sign he doesn’t take the day job seriously. On the contrary, the ten-time grand prix winner has dug deep this season, in the most difficult of circumstances given the woeful form Sauber has shown. He’s trounced team-mate Zhou Guanyu in qualifying, 17-1 so far, and has kept himself strongly in the frame to stay at the team for its Audi regeneration.

 That process has looked rocky so far, given the management changes since Hülkenberg signed up. Bottas remains hungry for the F1 game and even reckons he’s driving better than he’s ever done. That’s always hard to judge when he’s in such a car. But it’s certainly clear the 35-year-old shouldn’t be written off as a paddock joke – even if he’s very good at being it.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.