2021 WHO’S GOING TO WIN IT ALL?

There are six races remaining in the 2021 Formula 1 season. As things stand ahead of this weekend’s United States Grand Prix, six points separate two of the championship’s best drivers. Only one of them will win the title, and it’ll either be a triumphant ending of an era or the glorious extension of one of F1’s most legendary tales.

The battle between Red Bull and Mercedes, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, has ebbed and flowed throughout the season – rarely interrupted, rarely underwhelming. Looking back, the Bahrain season opener almost perfectly encapsulated the year’s rivalry, as the duo went toe to toe on behalf of their respective squads, well clear of the rest, the outcome decided, thrillingly, by the barest of margins.

So, who will come out on top as the endgame approaches? Statistically F1’s greatest ever driver? Or the young pretender ready to topple the champion? With the end in sight, we run down the critical factors that will most likely decide the ending of this F1 title fight for the ages.

1 THE FINAL UPDATES PUSH

There’s quite the debate going on now, ahead of F1’s rules revolution finally coming for 2022. Some are asking: is the championship on the verge of scoring an own goal by allowing the field to – inevitably – spread out again under new technical rules, just when the grid is at its closest since 2012 and two teams scrap it out for every race win? But that is a slightly disingenuous take given the current world title fight, as great as it is, is the result of a unique situation.

The cost-saving measures introduced to get the teams through the financial hit of the opening phase of the pandemic meant that 2021 is a season of making do with carryover car designs. Then