Formula 1 Drivers 2021

Verstappen took the pole position in Abu Dhabi ahead of Hamilton and Norris. During the race, Hamilton had a better start and took the lead into the first turn. At turn six Verstappen attempted to pass, forcing Hamilton to evade by going off the track.

Emerging from the corner still in the lead, Hamilton was instructed to give up the advantage he had gained. The pair settled in their positions until the first round of pit stops, with Hamilton gradually extending his lead. He later lost much of his advantage when Pérez, Verstappen's teammate with Red Bull, and who had yet to make a pit stop, made it difficult for Hamilton to pass him, though Verstappen was unable to capitalise. Later, a virtual safety car period allowed Verstappen to change his tyres without losing track position; however, despite the tyre advantage Verstappen was unable to challenge Hamilton. With seven laps remaining, the safety car was brought out for a crash involving Latifi.

Red Bull used the opportunity to give Verstappen a fresh set of soft tyres, while Hamilton, still on his now-quite-old hard compound tyres, was not pitted. Race director Michael Masi took the decision to allow the five lapped cars between Hamilton and Verstappen to un-lap themselves before restarting the race with only one lap remaining. Upon the restart, Verstappen quickly passed Hamilton and held him off for the remainder of the lap to win the race and the championship. In France, Verstappen got his second pole of the season, only to go wide at the first turn and lose the lead to Hamilton in the first lap. After regaining first with an undercut in his first pit stop, Verstappen found himself under heavy pressure from both Mercedes drivers.

Verstappen relinquished his lead to pit a second time, one of two drivers to do so, returning to the track 18 seconds behind Hamilton. The speed advantage allowed him to make up the lost time, overtaking Bottas on lap 44 and Hamilton on the penultimate lap, for his third win of the year and his thirteenth win overall. Hamilton, now 12 points behind in the Drivers' Championship, did secure second, and with an overtake on lap 49, Pérez managed to take third place, pushing Bottas to fourth. It was the first race of the season where the race winner also took pole position and the fastest lap, and the first race of the season with no retirements.

Red Bull extended their lead over Mercedes in the Constructors' championship to 37 points after the race. An interesting parallel for Alonso might be Schumacher,7 who returned to F1 in 2010 after three seasons away. In the three seasons before he retired again, he finished ninth, eighth and 13th in the standings, leading just three laps and notching only one podium in 58 races. Although Alonso is younger than Schumacher was in his comeback attempt — age 39, versus 41 — his current relative driver Elo (+30) is a lot lower than Schumacher's was (+46) one race into the 2010 season. For good or potentially for bad, Alonso remains the biggest wild card of the 2021 season. Hamilton was fastest in qualifying in Brazil, but was disqualified the following day for a technical infringement.

Bottas won the qualifying sprint, giving him pole position for the Grand Prix. By finishing second in the sprint, Verstappen increased his championship lead over Hamilton by two points, and Carlos Sainz Jr., who finished third, increased Ferrari's championship lead over McLaren. Hamilton finished fifth in the sprint from last on the grid, but a five-place grid drop due to taking a new engine relegated him to tenth on the grid for the Grand Prix. On race day, both Verstappen was able to overtake Bottas on the first lap. Meanwhile, Lando Norris and Sainz were involved in a separate incident, with Norris getting a puncture. On lap 48, Hamilton caught up to Verstappen and attempted an overtake, but failed and resulted in both of them going off track.

He won the race from Verstappen, decreasing Verstappen's championship lead from 21 points to 14 points. Cars were now under parc fermé conditions following the end of free practice three instead of qualifying, further restricting teams and drivers from making major changes to setups ahead of the race. The length of the two Friday practice sessions were cut from 90 minutes to 60 minutes. In a season packed with close racing, controversy, and tight championship battles, it is easy to pay attention to just the winners and losers.

But the season has so much more than just the championship battle between an all-time great and a future great driver. There were break-out performances, stunning qualifying laps, talented rookies looking to make their mark, and the return of a two-time world champion who still has unfinished business in the sport. Hamilton took pole position in Qatar, while a penalty for failing to respect double waived yellow flags during qualifying forced Verstappen to start from seventh. Verstappen quickly recovered to second place but was unable to threaten Hamilton's race lead despite setting the fastest lap on the last lap of the race. Fernando Alonso used a one-stop strategy to finish third, less than three seconds ahead Peréz in fourth, it was Alonso's first podium since the 2014 Hungarian Grand Prix. Bottas and Nicholas Latifi retired from the race after they and multiple others suffered punctures on track.

The result reduced Verstappen's lead in the Driver's Championship to eight points while Mercedes' lead in the Constructor's Championship was reduced to five points. Bottas won sprint qualifying at the Italian Grand Prix, but was forced to start from the back of the grid after exceeding the quota of one on his power units' components. Verstappen started at the front with the McLarens second and third. A slow stop for Verstappen meant that he ended up alongside Hamilton after the latter made his pitstop.

Hamilton and Verstappen collided, ending their races prematurely. Ricciardo led to the end to take his first victory since the 2018 Monaco Grand Prix and McLaren's first victory since the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix. His teammate, Norris, finished behind him to secure the team's first 1–2 finish since the 2010 Canadian Grand Prix and the first 1–2 finish of the season.

And Bottas, after a penalty applied to Pérez, came third from the back of the grid. After the race, Verstappen was judged by the stewards to have been predominantly at fault for the collision with Hamilton. As a result, he was given a 3-place grid-penalty for the next race and two penalty points on his super licence.

Formula 1 Drivers Pay 2021 The two-time world champion left F1 as its third-highest rated driver in the 2018 season, then spent two years dabbling in SportsCar and IndyCar racing. Elo currently has Alonso ranked sixth in the field, with the sixth-best reliability score as well, after decaying his rating to reflect his time away from the sport. Not all of the world's great sporting stars are as extrovert as they might appear – or as we might want them to be. Jim Clark was one of the most unassuming men ever to sit in an F1 cockpit, but also arguably the most singularly gifted driver of all time. Leclerc took pole again in Azerbaijan, this time he was able to start the race. Hamilton was held up in his pitstop to allow Gasly to pass him in the pitlane, handing Verstappen the net race lead.

On lap 30, Lance Stroll crashed out due to a tyre failure and brought out the safety car. With Verstappen comfortably leading with six laps to go, he suffered a tyre failure, causing him to crash on the pit straight, bringing out the safety car and then the red flag on lap 46 and 48, respectively. Hamilton went up the inside of Pérez at the restart, but forgot to adjust his brake bias and missed the corner. Pérez won for the second time in his career and took his first win for Red Bull. Sebastian Vettel took Aston Martin's first podium in Formula One, while Gasly took his third career podium. Leclerc took pole at the Monaco Grand Prix despite crashing in the final minutes.

The crash caused a driveshaft failure, meaning he was unable to start the race. Verstappen started at the front and led from Bottas and Carlos Sainz Jr. On lap 30, Bottas was forced into retirement after his front-right tyre would not come off during a routine pitstop. Verstappen took the victory, as well as the championship lead for the first time in his career; Red Bull came away from this race with a one-point lead in the constructors' championship. Behind Verstappen, Sainz took his first podium for Ferrari, and Norris took his second podium of the season in third place.

But if we remove the team factors and put both drivers in equal equipment, Elo saw Verstappen as actually having had the better season in 2020. Verstappen led the field with a relative Elo of +90 points on an average team, compared with Hamilton's +78 mark. Conditional on finishing the session, Elo would expect Verstappen to beat Hamilton head-to-head in identical cars 56 percent of the time in qualifying and 53 percent of the time in races.

Clark set 33 pole positions and won 25 of the 72 GP starts he made, and can claim numerous records to this day – in 1963, for example, he led 71 per cent of all laps raced that season. As well as his versatility, Clark was revered for his incredible silkiness behind the wheel, and his extraordinary mechanical sympathy. "Jim Clark was everything I aspired to be, as a racing driver and as a man," his great friend Sir Jackie Stewart said. The 2021 Formula 1 World Championship returns to the track next weekend at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, with 20 drivers once again competing for the chance to win the title. Defending champion Lewis Hamilton won the season's first race in Bahrain over pre-race favorite Max Verstappen, and is seeking his 8th championship title to overtake Michael Schumacher for the most in F1 history.

While Lando Norris will be sad to see his good friend Carlos Sainz Jr. depart, he will be delighted to see a man who has seemed like his big brother at times join. When not on track Daniel Ricciardo and Norris have gained reputations as light-hearted kids looking to have some fun. Ricciardo famously caused Norris to cry laughing in a press conference last year, so it seems hopeful that the good atmosphere that McLaren boss Andreas Siedl (mastermind of Porsche's mighty 919 programme) has fostered will remain. Whether McLaren can build on two seasons of progress will be seen, but in signing Ricciardo they have a race-winner in the team with a proven track record at pushing teams up the grid. Ricciardo's switch to Renault may not have yielded the returns he hoped, but he has no doubt managed to push the team forward up the grid.

Racing Point, which used to be Force India, which used to be Spyker, which used to be Midland, which used to be Jordan, becomes an Aston Martin works team in 2021, marking the company's return to F1 for the first time in 60 years. Naturally both shall be retained to drive the Mercedes-clone RP20 for a second season? Stroll – a talented driver no doubt but also the son of the team's owner and Aston Martin shareholder Lawrence – will remain, but Perez finds himself out of a drive just a week after finally taking his first F1 win.

On the face of it making a step forward , Vettel arrives as a refugee from a relationship that went sour and will be looking to reclaim some of his former lustre – the 53-time race winner only stood on the podium once in 2020. Mercedes immediately lodged two separate protests against the race's result. Both protests were dismissed, but Mercedes immediately announced their intention to appeal the dismissal of the protest regarding the handling of the restart following the safety car period.

Following the race there was multiple criticism of the race director, that he "didn't follow the rules", and that they "made a late call that prioritized entertainment over classic notions of competitive integrity". The decision to bring the safety car in was noted to be against the usual procedures, and perhaps against the sporting regulations. There has since been a lot of criticism of the race director's decision on how to finish the race, with further commentary that "he knew the rules". Another lawyer later confirmed this view that Mercedes has a "good legal basis" for their protest.

Verstappen took pole from Russell and Hamilton in the Belgian Grand Prix in a wet qualifying session. The race was heavily affected by rain, which initially saw the start delayed by 25 minutes. After two formation laps behind the safety car, the race start was suspended and red-flagged due to poor conditions and lack of visibility. It was not restarted, becoming the shortest race in Formula 1 history and the sixth to award half-points as less than 75% of the race was completed.

Verstappen won by default, with Russell in second and Hamilton in third place. As a result, Hamilton's lead in the championship was cut to three points from Verstappen. Hamilton was fastest in qualifying to start in first place for the first ever sprint in the British Grand Prix. In the sprint, Verstappen made a better start than Hamilton and overtook him before the first corner, leading every lap and winning the sprint with Hamilton second and Bottas third, thus Verstappen started on pole for the Grand Prix itself. On lap five of the sprint, Pérez spun, dropping him to the back of the field, and later retiring, forcing him to start from the pits for the race. On the first lap of the Grand Prix, Verstappen and Hamilton collided at approximately 290 kilometres per hour at Copse corner.

Hamilton made contact with Verstappen's right rear wheel, causing the tyre to come off and Verstappen travelled into the barrier, causing the race to be stopped temporarily. Hamilton was penalised for the contact with a ten-second penalty, which he served during his pit stop. Leclerc led most of the Grand Prix, but finished second after Hamilton overtook Norris, Bottas, and Leclerc in the late stages to win the race.

Hamilton reduced his gap to Verstappen from 33 points to eight points. At the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, Hamilton took pole from Pérez and Verstappen. Verstappen went into the lead at turn 1 on lap 1, after it started raining on race day. Mazepin and Nicholas Latifi crashed at the exit of turn 13, bringing out the safety car. Under the safety car, Schumacher lost control of his car and spun into the pit exit, losing his front wing. On lap 31, at turn 7, Hamilton made a mistake, hitting the wall and damaging his front wing.

The moment he did, his teammate Bottas and George Russell had a crash at over 320 km/h on the start-finish straight, bringing out the red flag. After the race restarted, Norris overtook Charles Leclerc for second, but the former was overtaken by Hamilton, resulting in a podium of Verstappen, Hamilton and Norris. The area behind the pits where team motorhomes are located is known as the F1® Paddock. Previously closed off to everyone except the teams, media and invited guests, you can now take a guided tour courtesy of F1 Experiences. Widely acknowledged as the most illustrious stretch of concrete at a Grand Prix weekend, guests have met drivers from today and yesteryear, team bosses, media and other celebrities!

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For the 2010 season, Lando entered the two main national championships in the cadet class racing against drivers up to three years older than him. Took the first pole position of his career at Sochi and would have secured his maiden victory too if not for the sudden deluge which clipped his wings just a few laps from the end. Scored a second-place finish behind Ricciardo at Monza, qualified high up the grid most weekend and delivered consistent Sunday performances which combined strong pace and composed wheel-to-wheel racing. We won't go into recent event surrounding one of Haas's new signings for 2020 for many reasons, but it's safe to say that all eyes will be on the only American team in F1 in 2021. Long-standing drivers Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean both depart the team – Magnussen to IMSA and Grosjean to an uncertain future.

It will be an interesting transition for the team, as Grosjean had been a Haas F1 driver for its entire history, leaving a slightly insecure Renault seat to join in 2016. Magnussen followed in 2017 and they have been together ever since. Jumping into their shoes are new F2 champion Mick Schumacher (son of a certain seven-time champion whose name isn't Hamilton) and Russian Nikita Mazepin.

Again we won't go into Mazepin's recent actions off the track, but if he does race for Haas he will be on his best behaviour. It will be interesting to see how he copes in F1, and the atmosphere at Haas has hardly seemed like the calmest to step into over the last few years. Valtteri Bottas finished first in sprint qualifying, but was required to start the race from the back of the grid for exceeding his quota of power unit elements. Charles Leclerc set the fastest time in qualifying, but did not start the race. Max Verstappen, in the second slot, was the first driver on the grid. Lewis Hamilton was the fastest in qualifying in Turkey, but was dropped down the grid because of a penalty due to a power unit component change.

Valtteri Bottas was promoted to pole position and won the race, his first of 2021. He was followed by Max Verstappen, who re-took the championship lead, and Sergio Pérez, who took his first podium since France. Verstappen took pole at the Austrian Grand Prix, the last race of the first triple header. Lando Norris received a penalty after being judged to have forced Sergio Pérez off track.