F1 2021 — The Major Storylines
New drivers, new formats, returning legends and exciting rookies. But will we get a championship fight to go with it all?
The 2021 Formula One season gets underway on March 28 and, despite the recent Mercedes dominance, there is plenty to look forward to. After all, the 2020 campaign was widely regarded as one of the most entertaining in recent memory.
While Lewis Hamilton comfortably took home a seventh world title, the rest of the pack saw the most exciting and unpredictable action of the hybrid era.
Of the 20 drivers on the grid, 13 landed a podium place — the most to do so since 2012 — including first time achievers such as Lando Norris, Alexander Albon and Esteban Ocon.
Lance Stroll also earned his first pole position in the crazy conditions of the Turkish Grand Prix. And, who could forget, Pierre Gasly and Sergio Perez both completed the ultimate dream of any racing driver: an F1 Grand Prix victory.
The battle for third place in the Constructors Championship went down to the wire as Racing Point and McLaren fought for the last step on the podium. Perez also finished a career high fourth in the Drivers Standings in another tense battle.
However, 2021 was supposed to usher in a new era for the sport. The regulation changes meant to shake up F1 were delayed instead to 2022 due to the pandemic and so this year will now be the end of the 2017–2021 era of the hybrid engine age.
The rule changes for 2021, as excellently described by Ted Kravitz, are very minor, but the driver shakeups from last year’s Silly Season mean there is plenty of change to the grid for the upcoming season.
With that introduction out of the way, let’s dive into which of the biggest storylines for this upcoming season we should be most excited about.
1. The Championship
It’s not since 2016 that a championship battle has gone down to the wire. Ever since the introduction of the hybrid engines in 2014, Mercedes have dominated the sport. Their dominance has seen various shades of Silver, but in 2019 and 2020 the team was back to their most dominant best.
In 2017 and 2018 they faced a stiff challenge from Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari. However they still came out on top. It was from 2014–2016 that the team faced its only true competitor: itself.
When Nico Rosberg retired following his championship victory, he took the teammate battle with him. Valtteri Bottas replaced the German driver and Hamilton has cruised to victory over his colleague ever since.
The Finn offered no threat to Hamilton in 2019 & 2020, and there is very little reason to suggest he will turn that around for 2021.
Instead, a new challenger approaches the stand. Red Bull may finally look to have put the package together for Max Verstappen to go toe to toe with Mercedes from the word lights out and away we go.
The Dutchman has picked up 10 race wins since debuting for the drinks brand in 2016. He has been chasing wins, pole positions and podiums for five years now but is still only 23-years old.
Finally it looks like Red Bull has built a car capable of competing with Mercedes. With Perez now at the helm of the second car, it now also looks like Verstappen will have a more than capable wingman to fight on both fronts for the team.
Gasly and Albon in the past have cost Verstappen the chance for more race wins. They were simply too far back and it allowed Mercedes to gang up two to one on him.
It hasn’t helped that, up to now, Mercedes have been much quicker than Red Bull. But the early signs of pre-season Testing have shown that Red Bull might not be as far off the pace as before.
While Mercedes are still the favourites, Red Bull now look to be capable challengers and, frankly, it’s been so long since we could say that about anyone that a little bit of cautious optimism must be forgiven.
The expectation is still that Hamilton will secure a record breaking eighth world title, but perhaps it won’t be so easy this time around. After all, it wouldn’t be the first time a 24-year old stopped an eighth championship victory.
2. Development Ditching
With the new regulations coming into play for next season, that means the teams will all have to shift focus on the development of those cars at some point. It is likely that even now, before the 2021 season officially starts, every team has started work on the 2022 car.
There will come a point in time where it will be the absolute main focus for every team. At some stage, the 2021 car will no longer matter and every team will simply stop working on iterating and improving on it.
This will be different for every team and could have a huge impact on the pecking order for next season.
If there is to be a championship battle, for example, then do Mercedes and Red Bull keep developing the 2021 car right to the bitter end in an effort to take the crown? Or will they have to make sacrifices in development in order to not fall behind for 2022?
This will be true in the midfield battle as well. McLaren, Alpine, Aston Martin and Ferrari will all be vying for third place once again in the Constructors Championship, but at what point does third become worth it in order to sacrifice 2022?
For the cars at the very back of the grid, this decision will come much easier than most others. Haas have openly admitted to already shifting focus onto 2022’s car, essentially sacrificing 2021 completely.
This, too, is a big risk however. Falling so far behind in 2021 could be demoralising and there is no guarantee that a head start will gain the team any significant advantages.
How this plays out over the course of the season will be hugely fascinating and will have implications for both this season and next.
3. The Midfield Shakeup
The cars aren’t all that different from last year’s. However, the grid is almost completely different. We still have 10 teams and 20 drivers, but only three constructors stuck with the same two that drove the car in 2020.
Williams, Alfa Romeo and Mercedes still have their pairing from last year, but the other seven teams in the paddock all changed at least one driver.
Racing Point and Renault also changed names, and even leadership in the case of Renault. They are now Aston Martin and Alpine respectively.
The green Aston Martin will be driven by Stroll and Vettel. The four time world champion joins the team having fallen out of love with Ferrari. Their relationship broke down over the course of the final two years and a change of scenery was needed for both.
This will be a big challenge to Vettel’s F1 legacy. Stroll is young and lacks the reputation of his previous young teammates Daniel Ricciardo and Charles Leclerc.
If he loses to the Canadian then it will be clear that Vettel is past his best. But, under that pressure, there is also a chance for the German to once again prove himself as one of the best drivers the sport has ever seen.
For Alpine, they have brought back Fernando Alonso to F1. He left the sport in 2018 after a disappointing four year stint with McLaren but, even at 39-years old, the Spaniard is as hungry as ever to compete at the highest level of motorsport.
The two year hiatus, as well as an unfortunate biking accident that means he will race this season with metal plates in his jaw, means that expectations for Alonso won’t be too high. That puts the pressure right onto Ocon.
The Frenchman lost to Ricciardo last season, but he too was returning from a break from the sport. He has had a year to adjust to a new team and a new car and by the end of 2020 he was starting to look like his old self again.
But Alonso has a history of domination over his teammate, just ask Stoffel Vandoorne what competing with Alonso did for his career.
If Ocon suffers a similar fate to the Belgian, then the Mercedes seat he covets can be kissed goodbye. However, a competitive season against a world champion could do wonders for his F1 career.
Of course, Alonso is replacing Ricciardo at Renault/Alpine. The Australian left the French outfit after only two seasons. He has now moved over to McLaren, who have also ditched Renault themselves in favour of a Mercedes supplied engine.
The team has gone from strength to strength in recent seasons and now looks ready to compete for podiums on a consistent basis. Ricciardo earned two of his own in 2020 in impressive fashion and he looks as hungry as ever at McLaren.
This will be a great opportunity for Norris to lay down a marker to show everyone just how good he is. He competed well against Carlos Sainz last season, but Ricciardo is a proven race winner.
If the Briton can step up and compete at the same level as his teammate again then he will have shown his worth to McLaren.
Meanwhile, Sainz will now be competing with Leclerc at Ferrari. Sainz has moved around a lot in his F1 career despite only being 26-years old. But he’s got his move to one of the big teams, and there is no team bigger than Ferrari.
Leclerc out-performed Vettel last season to assert himself as the new team leader. Sainz will have to up his game to stay on the level of the Monégasque. Sainz was steady and dependable in the McLaren, but Ferrari will want more from him than that.
Steady and dependable are good, but they’re not exciting.
However, Yuki Tsunoda might be able to supply a fresh dose of excitement at Alpha Tauri. The Japanese driver was promoted from Formula Two, replacing Daniil Kvyat. He will race alongside Gasly in what could be the most entertaining driver pairing of the midfield.
The Frenchman completed his redemption arc with a race victory at Monza in 2020, but if he is ever to move into a top team again then he has to outclass his rookie teammate.
Tsunoda has a lot of interest from Helmut Marko, of Red Bull, and he might leapfrog Gasly’s place in the Red Bull pecking order if he is able to out-perform his teammate this season.
Finally, Haas have replaced both of their drivers from last year. The less said about Nikita Mazepin the better. Mick Schumacher will debut in the sport 30 years after his legendary father did so for Jordan.
The return of the Schumacher name is most welcome and Mick will have the support of the entire F1 community behind him in what will be a difficult first season. Haas won’t be quick, so he will only have his teammate to truly compete with.
This might help alleviate the pressure on the German, but being a Schumacher will always bring pressure. How he handles that will be the main focus for outsiders looking into Haas this season… hopefully.
4. Silly Season
The 2020 Silly Season was remarkable and the ramifications of it are well documented above, but the 2021 edition might have an even bigger impact on the sport. The following drivers are out of contract at the end of the season: Hamilton, Bottas, Russell, Ocon and Perez.
That means Mercedes, one of the three teams to retain their two drivers for 2021, will have big decisions to make for 2022. Russell showed us all how good he is at the Sakhir Grand Prix. The Englishman was unlucky not to earn his first race win that day, but he cemented himself as one of the brightest talents in F1.
He comfortably led the experienced Bottas from lap one and only missed out on pole by two hundredths of a second, in a car he barely fit into.
Hamilton, too, will have a big decision to make. He only signed a one year deal with the team which in itself is quite curious. The seven time world champion has left his options open and he may even decide to call it a day on his career.
Ocon may also factor into Mercedes’ decisions. He was a junior driver with the team before joining Renault and is managed by Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff. If they were looking for drivers to replace both Hamilton and Bottas for 2022 then Ocon’s name will almost certainly be thrown into the ring.
However, if Ocon doesn’t perform well against Alonso then perhaps Alpine will be looking elsewhere for the 2022 season. The pressure on the Frenchman to perform is immense.
5. Sprint Races
For the three Grands Prix at Silverstone, Monza and Interlagos, a new weekend format will be trialed. Instead of the usual routine of the Free Practice Sessions (two on Friday and one on Saturday morning), followed by Qualifying and the Race, there will instead be a completely new element thrown into the mix.
These three weekends will still start with an hour long practice session, but will then feature a Friday Qualifying that will order the grid for a 45–60 minute Sprint Race to take place on Saturday. The final order of that Sprint Race will then set the grid for the Grand Prix on Sunday.
The winner of the Sprint Race will also receive three points in the Drivers Standings, with second earning two points and third achieving one point.
That means there will be as many as nine points up for grabs in this new format. That could be championship deciding if Red Bull do, in fact, compete with Mercedes in 2021.
This new format is in a bid to drum up interest in the sport over a whole race weekend, while also trying to see if there is a better way to figure out the order to the grid.
The initial proposal put forth was that the grid should be set in reverse championship order for the Sprint Race, but that was quickly shot down by those in charge of the decision making and, of course, the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari.
Instead we’re left with the carcass of that idea. In an era where overtaking is very difficult and on-track action isn’t quite what we expect from F1, they have decided the potential fix to this problem is simply more racing.
This idea is also in danger of devaluing the Race day on Sundays. If viewers tune in for an hour long Sprint Race on Saturday in which there is little action then there’s no reason to think that will change for the race on Sunday.
Considering the new regulations for 2022 are designed in a bid to solve these problems, the lack of patience to just wait and see how effective those rules will be is stunning.
There are no guarantees that this format will be used any more than in those three races they’ve selected so far, but no outlines have been given for what constitutes success and failure either. It could end up leading to a more boring race weekend, but also drive up viewership at the same time as more people tune in to see how this format unfolds.
Is increased viewership a success if the actual action is terrible? The lack of transparency going into the new season on this is concerning and it remains to be seen who this format change actually benefits.
All of the drivers, team principals and, of course, the fans will have opinions on this change. It won’t be until we see it in practice that anyone can be certain what will happen, but expect it to be a massive talking point until that day finally comes and final decisions are made.
