2020 was a year to forget for a lot of people, just about everyone on the planet. It was the year the Coronavirus (COVID-19) ran rampant across the globe and caused millions to suffer illness and death. One thing the virus also affected was the sporting industry, putting a halt to every major sport across the world, and racing was no exception. NASCAR, Indycar, Formula One, and MotoGP were all postponed for the foreseeable future. After a few months, though, racing began making its comeback. On July 5th, 2020, F1 made its triumphant return. The Austrian Grand Prix held at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg was the beginning of a new style of F1 race weekend, one without fans. The season ran to nearly the full amount of races allotted for the season, and by mid-December, the season had come to a close. For 2021, many teams committed to using very similar, if not identical cars to the 2020 versions, bar McLaren with their Mercedes engines and a few regulations for everyone. Usually, this is not the case. Teams tend to be working on the next season’s car as soon as the first race of the current season, and they typically are vastly different in some form from their predecessors. 2021 was different, though. With a stark difference in funding compared to 2019 and early 2020 due to lockdowns and not being able to get paid via sponsors and the FIA (F1’s governing body), many teams decided it was best to just adapt the 2020 car to the 2021 regulations. This allowed teams to focus on the new 2022 car, which is almost completely different from the 2021 car, save for the engines and the inclusion of a halo, which protects drivers from flying debris.
This led to the expectation that 2021 would be like every other season in the turbo-hybrid era (2014-present, where teams run hybrid six-cylinder engines), where Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 would dominate the Constructors (teams) Championship and Sir Lewis Hamilton would dominate the Driver’s Championship. However, fans were about to have their expectations shattered, and 2021 would prove to be one of the best.
Let’s start with the Driver’s Championship, where individual drivers compete for points and the year-end championship honors. There are 20 drivers across 10 teams, which are:
Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One
Sir Lewis Hamilton
Valtteri Bottas
Red Bull Racing Honda
Max Verstappen
Sergio “Checo” Perez
Scuderia Ferrari
Charles Leclerc
Carlos Sainz Jr.
McLaren Mercedes F1
Daniel Ricciardo
Lando Norris
Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One
Sebastien Vettel
Lance Stroll
Williams Racing
George Russell
Nicholas Latifi
Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN
Kimi Raikkonen
Antonio Giovinazzi
Uralkali HAAS F1
Nikita Mazepin
Mick Schumacher
Alpine F1
Fernando Alonso
Esteban Ocon
Alpha Tauri
Pierre Gasly
Yuki Tsunoda
Now, the two drivers that everybody had their eyes on in 2021 were Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton. Both were coming off of some of their best seasons, and came into the Bahrain GP with tons of momentum. For Hamilton, he had just come off a multi-record breaking season; he reached 100 poles, broke the all-time wins record originally held by Michael Schumacher (legend in F1, father of Mick Schumacher at HAAS), and matched Schumacher’s record of seven championships. Verstappen, on the other hand, had two victories and one pole, finishing third in the Driver’s Standings. The Honda power units in the Red Bulls had been getting better and better every year since they joined in 2019, and ahead of the 2021 season they looked to be a real threat. However, Mercedes had the proven engines and did not plan to let Honda’s recent jump in momentum catch them with their guard down. Verstappen and Hamilton fought hard every single race weekend, and together they won 17 of the 23 races. The fight went all the way to Abu Dhabi for the final race, in which the two contenders were tied for the first time in history. The race was dominated by Hamilton, but a late Safety Car from Latifi bunched the field up again. The FIA made a controversial decision to let only the lapped cars between Hamilton and Verstappen through, which proved to end Hamilton’s title chances. Hamilton- on old tires- and Verstappen- on new tires- fought hard for one single lap, in which Verstappen was able to get the lead and win the Driver’s Championship. Verstappen is only the second driver in the turbo-hybrid era to win a WDC (World Driver’s Championship) that was not Hamiton, the only other driver being Hamilton’s 2016 teammate Nico Rosberg.
The WDC was most certainly the main attraction, as it usually is, but the World Constructors Championship (WCC) was also pretty tight. Again, the two teams in contention all year were Red Bull and Mercedes. When either Hamilton (Mercedes), Bottas (Mercedes), Verstappen (Red Bull), or Perez (Red Bull) were unable to finish on the podium; they would pull them in, put fresh tires on, and go for the fastest lap. This not only gave the driver an extra point, but also the team. This kept the title fight close all year, as Red Bull and Mercedes would use their fastest drivers in that race to contend for fastest lap, usually being Bottas and Perez, while Verstappen and Hamilton focused on the WDC. In the end, Mercedes won out over Red Bull for the eighth year in a row, and continued their streak of winning every title in the turbo-hybrid era up to this point.
The calendar received some tweaks for 2021 as well. 2020 saw the return of several fan-favorite tracks, including Imola and the Nurburgring. Portimao, Mugello, Turkey, and the very fast outer layout of the Bahrain Circuit also debuted in 2020. For 2021, only a few of these tracks returned. Imola, Portimao, and Turkey transferred from 2020, and were met with two new tracks. One, Zandvoort, held the Dutch GP- Max Verstappen’s home race- and returned to the calendar after a multi-decade absence. The other track was Jeddah, which held the Saudi Arabian GP, and was one of the fastest tracks on the schedule. The Jeddah race also bared witness to several key championship incidents including:
Verstappen’s failed pole lap
Verstappen running off track to avoid Hamilton, gaining an advantage
Verstappen and Hamilton colliding as Verstappen slowed to allow Hamilton by as to avoid penalty
Verstappen running Hamilton slightly wide, forcing him off track
After the race in Jeddah, the championship could not be any closer and the two could not have any fiercer of a rivalry.
The 2021 season did more than meet expectations, it blew them out of the water. By delivering one of the closest and most exciting championship battles the world of Formula One has ever experienced, 2021 turned what would have been considered a season to forget in March into one that will be discussed for many years to come. With the addition of Miami to the race calendar for this year, as well as a brand new car, 2022 is shaping up to be some of the same.
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