Coming into the 2021 Formula 1 season, with Sir Lewis Hamilton coming off his record tying 7th World Championship, and all the talk being more about the changes to the cars coming in 2022, there wasn't much discussion or high hopes for an exciting season this year. The teams would be focusing more of their …
All Square Heading to Abu Dhabi for F1 Finale
Coming into the 2021 Formula 1 season, with Sir Lewis Hamilton coming off his record tying 7th World Championship, and all the talk being more about the changes to the cars coming in 2022, there wasn’t much discussion or high hopes for an exciting season this year. The teams would be focusing more of their money on developing the new car rather than put to much resources into this years car everyone said, and Mercedes would cruise to another Constructor’s championship on the back of Hamilton breaking Schumaker’s record and claim his 8th title. What we got instead is arguably the greatest Formula One season ever let alone the hybrid era.
With Red Bull Racing ending their relationship with Honda at the end of this year and starting to develop their own engines, there is no guarantee they will be able to create a title contending power unit or even be in the mix come next season. They knew that now was the time that they have the driver in Max Verstappen, a top car on the grid and some of Mercedes’ focus being elsewhere developing a car for next year, that they could take full advantage and get Max his Drivers championship he so desperately wants.
The first five races of the season (Bahrain, Italy, Portugal, Spain & Monaco) really showed that there is only 2 contenders for this title as Hamilton and Verstappen traded punches and victories with the winners being: Ham, Ver, Ham, Ham, Ver. And it hasn’t really slowed down much from there either with the two drivers winning 17 out of the 21 races.
With Verstappen and Hamilton all tied up heading into the final race, Max holds the championship advantage over Hamilton because he has one more victory this season. Seeing the way Verstappen has chosen to defend his positions on the track by forcing Lewis off-track and re-entering unsafely, there has been a lot of discussion about the very real possibility of a collision between the 2 drivers that takes out the both of them and neither can finish the race. If a situation like that happens Max is your champion. For instance, when Max slowed down for Hamilton to go by last race because he defended illegally and put people at risk, he did so in a way that looked like he was “brake checking” Hamilton and they touched causing damage to Hamilton’s front wing. If that collision took them both out then Max is going into this race 8 points ahead.
In 1989 at the Japanese GP, Austin Senna needed the victory over teammate and main rival Alain Prost. On fresher tires and taking the inside line for the lead on one of the final corners Prost closed the door and smashed into Senna trying to take the 2 drivers out. It looked like it worked for a minute until Marshall’s were able to push Senna’s car and off he went to win the race. Only to kate be disqualified for missing a Chicain on re-entry and Prost won the title.
In 1997 Michael Schumacher went into the final race at Jerez with a 1 point lead over Jacques Villeneuve. Even before the race, Villeneuve wasn’t too optimistic that Schumacher would play fair should Schumaker think he was at a disadvantage. Villeneuve was proven right on the 48th lap of the race when he was faster and passing his rival before Michael turned into Villeneuve and took himself out of the race. Fortunately Jacques was able to finish and went on to win the championship. Schumacher was DQ’d from the drivers championship for the season and was chastised by the paddock and media around the world for dangerous and unsportsmanlike behavior.
I am not saying the Max is going to go out there and take Hamilton out on the first corner to eliminate both drivers which would give Max his championship, but I can’t say it’s totally out of the question seeing how Verstappen has handled all these other situations. I can’t wait to see social media if something like that ever happens!
Other than the obvious championship race there are some other battles you should watch out for that will have some big money implications for drivers and teams. The battle for P5 in the drivers championship, basically the best of the rest behind the Mercedes and Reb Bull cars, is the one I’ve been most interested in and is showcasing some of the brightest young stars that Formula One has to offer with Charles Leclerc with Ferrari currently in 5th with 158 points, Lando Norris with Mclaren is in P6 with 154 points, and Leclercs’s Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. in P7 with 149.5 points.
With only 9 points separating the 3 drivers for P5 there are some other factors in play here as well. Leclerc signed a long-term contract for big money to be Ferrari’s number one driver and has been with the team for a few years now. He competed with former 4-time champ Sebastian Vettel while they were teammates and actually outperformed him. The team loves what they saw and locked him in. Now Sainz, who is a new comer to Ferrari, and in a car that has been built for Leclerc, has been on par with him all season and at times looking more comfortable in the car. It would not be a good look for Charles to lose to his new teammate.
And then you have Lando Norris, Mclarens golden-boy that team principal Zac Brown loves and made that clear when Lando and Sainz were teammates last year at Mclaren, started the season on fire topped by the 1-2 finish when current teammate Daniel Ricciardio won at Monza. He would love nothing more to beat his ex-teammate Sainz and the entire Ferrari team to continue his rise in Formula One.
We also have a nice battle between teammates for the final spot in the top-10. After Esteban Ocon’s P4 finish in Saudi Arabia (nearly P3, Bottas just passed him on final turn via DRS), he and Alpine teammate Fernando Alonso are separated by just 5 points. The former 2-time champ Alonso, sits with 77 points and Ocon sits at 72 points. It’s been fun watching Alonso genuinely enjoy working as a team in Alpine and we have seen the results. In Ocon’s win earlier this year in Hungary was in large part to Fernando’s stellar work down the grid holding off a charging Hamilton for long enough in order for Esteban to secure a win. And then a few weeks ago in Qatar, Ocon was able to return the favor when he was able to hold off Perez long enough for Alonso to secure his first podium since 2014.
And the teamwork has been paying off for the “team” with Alpine currently sitting in P5 ahead of rival AlphaTauri. Pierre Gasley, who sits in P9, has been the definition of consistent this year and is in the running for driver of the year. However, his teammate rookie Yuki Tsunoda is still having a hard time getting used to all the new tracks he is seeing and a new Formula One car and hasn’t showed the consistency of his teammate and sits in P14 with just 20 points and has George Russell breathing down his neck in a Williams with 16 points. Look for Russell, in his last race in a Williams before moving to Mercedes to team with Hamilton, to give it everything he’s got to catch Yuki and finish ahead of a Red Bull engine.
Again, this has been one of the best Formula One seasons of all time and even the “boring” races this year have been pretty good. Fully expect to see some crazy ending to this season to cap off an incredible year of F1.
