THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE UNBELIEVABLE
No one knew it at the time, but the pattern of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship battle was set way back in the pandemic spring and summer of 2020.
As the world shut down, teams and rule-makers worked in something close to panic to keep the sport afloat. Among the raft of changes decided upon was to use the same cars for two seasons, with only limited changes allowed.
To keep a lid on speeds, because of concerns about tyre integrity, parts of the aerodynamic surfaces at the back of the car were cut away. These changes – initially apparently small and relatively inconsequential – were the biggest single factor behind a season of Mercedes domination in 2020 turning into one of the most intense and closely fought campaigns in history the year after.
From the moment the cars hit the track in pre-season testing, the effect was immediate and obvious. The Red Bull looked fast and planted in Max Verstappen’s hands, while the Mercedes was nervy and skittish, Lewis Hamilton and team-mate Valtteri Bottas suffering a number of spins as they struggled to get a time out of their revised car.
And when Verstappen put the Red Bull on pole for the season-opening race in Bahrain by nearly 0.4 seconds, the impression that Mercedes had a fight on its hands was confirmed.
That first race set the tone for the season. The Mercedes was much closer to the Red Bull on race pace than in qualifying. Hamilton got the jump on Verstappen with an early stop, and the race distilled to a gripping climax, with Verstappen closing on Hamilton on better tyres. They went wheel to wheel. This time, Hamilton came off best, and Mercedes grabbed an unlikely first win.
The opening four races gave a somewhat inaccurate impression of reality, for Hamilton won three of them. Verstappen’s only victory was in the wet-dry race at Imola, where Hamilton was lucky to get away with going off and losing
