The 2021 Season

[Chrill]

The Italian GP saw Hamilton retire from a race for the first time since Austria 2018, and saw him crash out of a race for the first time since Spain 2016 (also with a championship rival!).

It also saw McLaren record its first victory since 2012, and first 1-2 since 2010.

In fact, this is so far the only 1-2 recorded this season by any team.

Lando Norris finished P2 for his best ever finish in F1, previously he had finished 3rd at best.

This marked Daniel Ricciardo's first win since the 2018 Monaco GP, his longest dry spell since winning his first race back in 2014.

With both Verstappen and Hamilton retiring, this race marked the 2nd time this year neither of the two reached a podium.

[Chrill]

Incredible race in Russia, victory snatched from Norris in the dying stages after he made the wrong call on tyres. I think it was weak of the team to let Norris make the wrong call, they had the radar and they knew they should pit. It must have been incredibly difficult to pit from the lead, but as soon as Hamilton pitted Norris must have known he had lost the race.

I cannot believe Bottas was this slow. He found P5 in the end, but points was not on the cards until the rain came and messed everything up. Classic end to a race, with severe rain and few laps remaining. It helped Verstappen finish 2nd, but almost a full minute behind Hamilton.

[Chrill]

Alright, Brazil was a race. Let's walk through the stewards decisions that were somewhat controversial.

1. Hamilton's DSQ from quali - In my book the correct decision. If a car fails scrutineering, there can be no leeway, no room for interpretation. Incredibly harsh, but if they do not do it this way then teams will move into the grey areas on purpose
2. Verstappen's touching of the cars in parc ferme - Once again correct. They used Verstappen to stop the trend of Inspector Seb. Now, drivers will only look but not touch. He did not affect the Mercedes, but next time he won't touch it either
3. Red Bull repairing their rear wings in parc ferme after Lewis was DSQed - Also correct. The Red Bull passed scrutineering, but had damages. Those should be repaired to the same specification. Nothing wrong here.
4. Verstappen running wide when defending against Hamilton in the race - OK, now. This one I loathe. Max was not alongside Lewis, but he was defending and he was on the inside so he had the right to the line. Had he forced Lewis wide whilst staying on track, I would have been fine with this. Verstappen went super wide, and never had any intention of making the corner. In my case, this was a clear case of both "Forcing another driver off the track" and of "Leaving the track and gaining a lasting advantage". Two times 5 seconds in my book, and probably 4 points to his license (2 times 2).

F1 is lucky Hamilton won, for two reasons. This will make quite the episide on Drive to Survive, and they avoid a massive fallout since the 4th point above is moot. Hamilton won anyway. Had Verstappen robbed Hamilton of victory because of that driving...

Of course, Hamilton coming from 25th (basically) to win is unheard of. I read that his recovery in the F1 Sprint was the greatest ever comeback in terms of "overtakes compared to distance covered" in the history of the sport.

[Penfold]

And no advantage for Max to do more than push Lewis off track whilst himself remaining on it, keeps Hamilton behind and avoids the risk of penalties. Mind you, I was half expecting Max to plough into Lewis at that corner, so glad it was kept relatively clean!

[Chrill]

Max, Valtteri, and Carlos all pushed through yellows after Gasly's tyre went "meh" on that kerb. Could that move Gasly into P2 for tomorrow's race?

[Chrill]

Could that move Gasly into P2 for tomorrow's race?

It did, but it did not help him.

Lewis is quite literally unstoppable right now, and apparently they did not run the monstrous "Brazil engine" in Qatar. They will in Saudi Arabia though. If they once again finish Lewis 1st Max 2nd in Saudi, then whoever wins in Abu Dhabi will quite simply be the world champion. Very exciting.

[Chrill]

Well the Saudi Arabian GP was different.

First of all, the track is not up to F1 standards. It's just not. So many crashes in F1 and F2 prove that. In addition, Fittipaldi is in hospital for an F2 crash which cannot be blamed on the track (assuming the warning system worked, they have not released any replays so it's hard to tell).

Verstappen was given a 10 second penalty for actively braking ahead of Lewis Hamilton. Considering the wording in the FIA document, I'm honestly surprised Verstappen was not disqualified. But I suppose it's better for the show to go into Abu Dhabi tied on points?

[Chrill]

Saudi Arabia also highlighted things I think needs to be put into rule for 2022:

1. If encouraged to let a driver pass due to an earlier incident (gaining an advantage off the track, etc.), you are not able to overtake for a set period of time or set number of corners (10 seconds, 3 corners, whatever)
2. During red flag and parc ferme, you can only repair your car to an equal specification. This should mean drivers cannot change tyre compounds, only change to other tires of the same spec (hard to hard, medium to medium). This would enforce the mandatory pit stop outside a red flag
3. I don't know if this is already a rule, or just something Masi likes doing, but we should specify exactly what and when the race director can "offer" deals like they did to Verstappen. Was it essentially "Let him past" as they usually do? It probably was. This should be written into rules, something like "You have 1 lap to reverse the cars before the matter is picked up by stewards". No room for interpretation
4. Let's be honest, the Q2 tyre rule can go too. Max starting on mediums under one of those restarts made things interesting, so let them do that in every race.

[Chrill]

First impressions of revamped Yas Marina? It's neat, definitely improved. Will overtaking be easier? Not necessarily, at least until 2022.

First impressions of who is faster? Well, Hamilton won the Friday. Red Bull struggled a lot with one lap pace. Could we see something similar to Saudi Arabia, where they go all in on qualifying ahead but suffer on Sunday? If so, Hamilton will have to pass Verstappen to win. That'd be something.

[Matt]

ESPN wasn't clear about where the practices were airing, so I didn't see any of them.

[Chrill]

Could we see something similar to Saudi Arabia, where they go all in on qualifying ahead but suffer on Sunday? If so, Hamilton will have to pass Verstappen to win. That'd be something.

Well.

[Penfold]

Hand obviously forced by Max flat-spotting the mediums in Q2, but Red Bull did race stints on the softs during practice and pace looked pretty good - be a heavier car at start of race of course, but then also more rubber down on track.... All set up for an intriguing battle

[Chrill]

Well that was a race.

It really feels to me like this is what the FIA wanted all along. A spectacle is more important than fair racing. They broke their own Safety Car rules to ensure a green flag at the end, knowing all too well that they removed what was to that point a certain victory.

To me, Mercedes is definitely right in their protest and Verstappen's championship feels hollow to me. He was simply not the better driver when it mattered, but he was on softs after being put there by the FIA.

All season long, the incredibly inconsistent calls made by the FIA have been made to bring this championship to the wire.

I don't think Mercedes should be given the victory post-race, and I hope their appeal will be thrown out. It's just too much bad press if they rewrite the history books a few weeks after the season is over, you know? But I also do think that, had FIA followed their own rules regarding the Safety Car, Hamilton would be celebrating his 8th championship right now. That's just not a worthy end to this season.

At least in 2022, a car will be using the number 1 again as Verstappen already confirmed a few weeks ago he intends to use it. So that's something.

Also, in 2022 I will be at the Dutch Grand Prix. I will be in the Netherlands, as the Dutch driver races in front of his home crowd. That will be spectacular.

[Matt]

The last two weeks were races by some definition, I suppose.

Personally, I think Verstappen was the better driver all season, including at the end. Mercedes certainly brought something incredible beginning in Brazil, but I think some of Max's qualifying laps show that he was having to push the car way harder to keep up. They were both great. The biggest difference is that I still don't buy into this narrative that Silverstone was actually just an example of Max being too stupid to win a championship. I don't think any championship-caliber driver backs out of that corner, he was easily ahead and Hamilton wasn't close to making that apex. I hate this entire argument. Without just getting absolutely taken out there, and Hamilton's free car fix in Imola, it's not really that close. I've seen Hamilton fans complain about Spa too, but there's every chance Verstappen comes out of there with a bigger lead if the race does run to full points.

Ultimately, I think F1 has a lot of bad rules, which are also applied inconsistently on top of that, and both teams and drivers started driving to pressure the race director/stewards into making calls from Silverstone onward.

[Matt]

I think this season really demonstrated my issues with F1. The racing was not actually good. The championship math was good, that's a totally separate question. Max and Hamilton barely ever raced each other without hitting each other or running the other off the track, and the only reason anyone can get close enough to pass is DRS.

More directly: how often, on Monday after the race, was the conversation actually "wow what great racing" instead of "well that should have been a penalty/that team is cheating/etc." Almost never. COTA maybe? But like nothing actually happened that race. And that's not just on the stewards. The rules and tracks are set up in such a way that they're forced to make calls, and the losing side will complain forever.

The new car is the only hope for good racing, but I'm sure the teams will find a way to make it impossible to be close to anyone.