Category: Formula One

It recently got announced that Hülkenberg is Aston Martin’s reserve and development driver for the 2021 season… However does this put more pressure on Vettel to perform well?

Nico Hülkenberg is very well known with the Silverstone based team, he raced with them between 2012 to 2016. He also stood in for them three times last year when both drivers was off at separate times due to positive Covid tests and then had to quarantine. He can now expect the call to stand in for either of the drivers should either of them miss a race over the course of the season.

It’s well known that Sebastian Vettel hasn’t had the easiest of year in his career, but with him moving to AM you would think things would start looking up as he is at a new team… Unfortunately not he didn’t have very good luck at pre-season testing and in the first race weekend of the season. I do get moving to a new team things are different and it will be tough etc, but if you look at other drivers it hasn’t been that difficult for them to settle into their teams. Has Vettel lost his mojo? Can he get it back if he has?

At the moment Hülkenberg’s role is strictly a reserve one, however that hasn’t stopped people from thinking will he be first in line to replace Vettel or even Stroll?

Everyone knows that Hülkenberg can deliver on a race weekend and he proved that last year when he stood in for the team… I do think Vettel needs to watch himself otherwise he could be out of a seat! Which none of us want but if he doesn’t start performing throughout the weekend then it just may become true and I don’t see him going to another team after this…

Personally, I would like to see Hülkenberg back in F1 permanently whether that be with Aston Martin or with a different team, his got the talent and I think some teams are crazy to not have him as there driver!

So ever since the Rosberg vs Hamilton days back in 2016, F1 has done a 360 since then and became very predictable, however after the Bahrain race it made me think how things could change and become interesting throughout the season…

The most obvious one is Hamilton & Verstappen. There is no doubt Red Bull have up’d there game this year and how Mercedes are having a little bit of trouble… The race was exciting from start to finish which I think is so good and also more people would want to start watching it because there is now someone bringing the heat to Hamilton.

McLaren are on fire, they finished 3rd last year in the constructors and with the first race done the results were Lando 4th and Daniel 7th. They had a strong pre-season test and they showed in the first race they have a strong team, while some may see that Ricciardo finished 7th however we all know that he gets better as the season goes on and it was only his first drive with the team and it does take some time to settle in…

Ferrari are obviously back! Or at least trying to get back 🤞🏻. I believe they will not finish in top 3 of the constructors at the end of the season, but I do think they will finish 4th or 5th which isn’t bad compared to last years result! The competition for them this year I think will be Alpha Tauri.

Tsunoda is the dark horse this year! We all saw how good and consistent he was in pre-season testing, and over the race weekend… I do think as his experience grows we will see him grow and see him get more confident and get more points in the races!

So there’s been lots of changes recently in F1 with changes to the weekend layout and so on but the FIA have got tougher on the teams this year…

The F1 teams are trusted to come to races with fully legal cars and as well the F1 sporting regulations. These note that “competitors must ensure that their cars comply with the conditions of eligibility and safety throughout each practice session and the race,” and that “the presentation of a car for initial scrutinising will be deemed an implicit statement of conformity.”

Cars are not examined thoroughly every weekend, for example at the Bahrain after the race, the cars get weighed, and all underwent a series of tests related to their power units were operated during the race.

At the Bahrain Grand Prix the FIA announced that after every race this season they will check a car at random and do deeper level of checks and analysis.

Why has this been introduced? Well, there is always rumours and suspicion throughout F1, but relying on either pre-existing or protests by rival teams to flag potential problems is not rigorous enough. Hence why a random check, which could hit any team after the race is the best way to do it.

In my opinion I can see why the FIA has introduced it, but in the back of my mind it makes me think why didn’t they sort it sooner sort of thing… I do however thinks it’s a good idea and it makes the sport seem more fair in that way, as they wont be picking the same team every single race weekend.

So with the 2021 season now underway and currently waiting for the next race weekend! Lets talk about available seats and drivers, I always think this is a good subject to talk about as you can make up some good scenarios!

Mercedes- They have both seats available at the end of this season, as the reigning champions will they keep both drivers for the 2022 season or will they possibly think about putting George Russell in one of the seats and retain one driver? I personally think Bottas may be out of a seat and Russell in one of them and joined by Hamilton…

Red Bull- So Verstappen’s contract ends in 2023, however Perez is only signed for the 2021 season. Potential candidates I think are Perez (depending on how he does), Tsunoda (the same again) and possibly bringing Albon back in? But then again Albon has to prove that he wants the seat…

Ferrari- I don’t think there will be any change in the Ferrari line up, Leclerc has a contract till 2024 and Sainz has one till 2022.

McLaren- Ricciardo’s contract finishes 2023 and Norris 2022, I don’t see either of them leaving the team any time soon!

Aston Martin- There is some uncertainty of how long both drivers contracts are at Aston Martin however I can’t see either them leaving until after the 2022 season.

Alpine- The returning Alonso, has signed up for 2 years so his contract is set to end in 2022. However Ocon’s ends this year, I think it depends massively on how Ocon performs this year… Saying that if he doesn’t then I think a potential candidate could be Pierre Gasly…

Alpha Tauri- Both drivers are up for grabs at the end of this season, could they retain Tsunoda for another year if he gets no other offers? If both drivers leave I could see Albon returning (depending on RB) and maybe somebody from Formula Two just not sure who yet…

Alfa Romeo- Once again, both drivers only have a years contract ending this year. To be honest I think Alfa Romeo may go with rookies, possibly Callum Ilott and Robert Shwartzman? Or the team could go down the route of retaining one driver and have one new driver.

Haas- The team have a line up for the 21′ and 22′ season, so no change there.

Williams- Both drivers contracts are ending this year, I believe that only one current driver will stay and I think that will be Latifi, and he could be joined by either Jack Aitken or Dan Ticktum possibly…

Since 2014, Formula One has had a penalty point system in place, where any breaches of the rules mean a drivers’ super licence is given endorsements. If any of the drivers rack up 12 points over a 12 month period they well then be banned for one race.

Last year there was lots of penalty points given out for a number of different reasons which included failing to respect yellow flags, practice start violations.

So, going into the new race year the rookies start off with zero, as well as Alonso, Bottas, Verstappen, Latifi, Gasly and Vettel. However in the first race weekend Vettel managed to get 5 over a weekend which has brought him up the table very quickly…

On the other end of the scale we have defending 7 time world champion Lewis Hamilton and he is joined by Mr Saturday (George Russell) and Lando Norris.

It will be very interesting to see how many points everyone will finish on at the end of a 23 race year… Below is how many each driver currently has :)

Driver:	Points:
Lewis Hamilton	6
George Russell	6
Lando Norris	5
Sebastian Vettel	5
Kimi Raikkonen	4
Charles Leclrec	3
Antonio Giovinazzi	3
Lance Stroll	3
Sergio Perez	2
Carlos Sainz	1
Esteban Ocon	1
Daniel Ricciardo	1
Pierre Gasly	0
Valtteri Bottas	0
Max Verstappen	0
Nicholas Latifi	0
Fernando Alonso	0
Yuki Tsunoda	0
Mick Schumacher	0
Nikita Mazepin	0

And…. Finally the last seat is filled, Hamilton has signed for a seat at the dominant Mercedes team and who his been with since 2013, this comes after Mercedes team principal and CEO Toto Wolff announced he has extended his contract with them for a further 3 years.

The 7 time world champion will be aiming for his 8th world title this year hopefully beating Michael Schumacher’s 7 and making history even more, Hamilton will be setting the bench mark for the current f1 drivers and future f1 drivers, as he has now passed lots of Michael’s records and maybe one day someone might pass Hamilton’s.

Lewis has shown how talented he is in the past 13 years in Formula One, and also back in the carting days working his way up. He wanted to be the best he possibly could and make his family proud as they are the ones who helped his career including his dad working 3 jobs when he was younger to make it happen.

Last year Lewis used his platform to support BLM and have more diversity throughout the sport. He also does lots to show his fans/ social media followers what is going on in the world including what needs to be done to help with issues surrounding animals. With this link being one of them, https://www.instagram.com/p/CH8OJ1gsAei/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Lewis also got onto the Queen’s new year honour list after being backed by PM Boris Johnson and is going to be knighted and will now be Sir Lewis, he becomes the fourth F1 driver to be knighted after two fellow Britons, Sir Stirling Moss and Sir Jackie Stewart, and also Australia’s Sir Jack Brabham.

Silverstone have renamed their pit straights on the international circuit to Hamilton Straight, this comes after Lewis won his 7th world title. The British Racing Drivers Club (BRDC) that owns Silverstone announced it at the Abu Dhabi Finale in December 2020. It’s the first time in Silverstone’s history that part of the circuit has been named after an individual. David Coulthard was the one to tell the 35 year old, with Coulthard saying “Lewis has become a huge part of this history and the directors of the Club and I felt there was no better way to mark this than to rename the iconic pits straight in recognition of his record-breaking achievements.”

I’m interested in seeing how this season plays out for him as it is the longest season ever in F1 and personally I want to see him win his 8th world championship and possibly his 9th to and make history once again.

So lately, there has been lots of talk about how F1 should change and what can make it more exciting, the two main ideas which have been spoke about a lot recently are reverse grid and a sprint race.

Firstly i have so many pros and cons of both but I do get why people are asking for it to be more exciting but then again why fix something thats not broken? There is still plenty of ‘drama’ on track, its just the fact that certain tracks don’t have the facilities for the drama as it could be quite dangerous if there was any…

So reverse grid has recently been shut down as an option to make F1 more exciting, last year it went to the teams however it failed to get support of all the teams in particular the dominant Mercedes. Personally it would off been good to see but also it is very predictable on some tracks where it is easy to over take it would be clear who would finish top three.

The next idea is sprint race which is very much still a contender, i am still 50/50 on this I think this could be a good idea and give everyone a fair chance – but will it then be the same results each time? How would F2 drivers feel about it. Some of the drivers who come up to F1 have done 2 years at formula two and then they are going to have basically the same weekends as they did. What would then make F1 different from the rest? I am so mixed opinioned abut this, I don’t think i will really know how i feel until they have one and to see how it goes.

Formula Ones new President and CEO Stefano Domenicali said they are trying to get the sprint race into the 2021 as an experiment and that there are discussions with the teams already on going. Also he said that he was also keen to find a way to give rookies more seat time in F1 machinery, especially because of the testing which has been shortened down. Now this I agree with I do think they need more time as a rookie to practice.

I am quite intrigued on what you guys think about a sprint race in Formula One, so I have made a poll to see your answers :)

So with the 2021 season starting in just under 8 weeks, it is a good time to look at the records which could be broken this year.

First of all the most obvious one would be Lewis Hamiltons 8th World Championship title. He equaled Michael Schumacher’s seven world championships last year and will more than likely go on to doing one better this year. Theres no real regulation changes this year, so there should be no reason why Hamilton and Mercedes will not dominate the season once again.

There are also two more records which have never been seen before for Lewis Hamilton this year. He is just two poles away from becoming the first man in history to record 100 Poles, as well as he is five wins away will ensure Hamilton becomes the first driver to take a century of Grand Prix wins. You would not want to bet against Hamilton not achieving these both in 2021. 2010 and 2011 are the only seasons in which he has failed to take at least two pole positions so far in his career, but since then he has won at least nine races in every season since 2014!

2020 was also the year Mercedes went on to win seven consecutive Constructors championship, that was a new record for most successive title wins for a team. If they win an eighth which is looking very likely there will be a new record for the most successive seasons in which an engine manufacturer has won. The current record for most successive wins for an engine manufacturer in Constructors championship is almost fifty years old, Ford Cosworth powered seven consecutive title wins between 1968 to 1974- the teams were Lotus, Tyrell and also McLaren during them years.

Fernando Alonso returning to F1 for 2021 with Alpine was a pretty big announcement last year, his long awaited return comes almost seven years since he took his last Grand Prix win in 2013 at the Spanish Grand Prix. If he wins during the 2021 season there will be a new record for the longest gap between two race victories, the current record is six years, six months and twenty eight days which is held by Riccardo Patrese. 2020 we had a few surprise wins, so anything can be possible in 2021, and if Alonso is right place at the right time I wouldn’t be too surprised to see him claim a 33rd Victory this season.

Lewis’ coronavirus infection led him to be unable to eclipse Michael Schumacher’s record of most laps led by the smallest of margins. Hamilton has led 5,099 laps in his career so far which is just twelve short of Michael Schumacher’s record of 5’111. Schumacher has held the record since overtaking Aryton Senna’s tally of 2,931 laps led. Between Schumacher and Hamilton they have led over 15% if all racing laps in F1 history.

And finally, Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas and Max Verstappen could set a new record for being the trio to have finished on the podium the most times together. The record currently belongs to 7 time champion Lewis Hamilton, one time champion Nico Rosberg and four time champion Sebastian Vettel, they shared the podium on fourteen occasions. Hamilton, Bottas and Verstappen only need one more time to equal that tally, in 2020 the trio finished in top three together on eight occasions alone in 2020.