8 reasons 2021 will go down in F1 history as one of the classic seasons

What a season we were treated to in 2021, as Max Verstappen personal his maiden World Championship without an intense fight with his Mercedes rival Lewis Hamilton. But there was plenty going on up and lanugo the F1 grid. Here are eight reasons we think 2021 will go lanugo as one of the all-time unconfined Formula 1 seasons.

1. A title fight for the month – and a new champion crowned

Have we witnessed the dawn of one of F1’s iconic rivalries, on the scale of Senna vs Prost or Schumacher vs Hakkinen? By the vestige of 2021, it would towards so, as Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton fought tooth-and-nail to sally on top – Verstappen attempting to take his maiden title, and the first for a Dutch driver, while Hamilton was going without a record eighth championship.

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True, it wasn’t unchangingly pretty to watch the pair’s duel, which reached its nadir in a wrinkly Saudi Arabian showdown. But there seems little doubt that images like Verstappen’s Red Bull parked atop Hamilton’s Mercedes at Monza will enter the weltanschauung of iconic moments in the sport’s history – while both racers proved worthy adversaries for each other wideness the year, Verstappen and Hamilton driving a step whilom the rest for much of the season.

2. Mercedes’ stronghold on the turbo-hybrid era was broken

Mercedes headed into 2021 on a run of seven double championship wins, a phenomenal record stretching when to the transpiration of engine formula in 2014. Straight out of the box, though, the Silver Arrows looked on the when foot, their new W12 floundering in pre-season testing, while the Red Bull RB16B looked a poised, title-threatening machine.

That Mercedes came yonder from the season with an eighth constructors’ title was testament to an phenomenal recovery by the team, one which hinged on a Silverstone update that arguably gave them the superior car once again. But nonetheless, Verstappen ultimatum the drivers’ title will be seen by many as a symbolic breaking of the Mercedes hegemony in the turbo-hybrid era, without years of trying from both Red Bull and Ferrari.

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3. It was a record-breaking season

2021 – the longest season in F1 history – witnessed some historic records getting toppled, on top of Mercedes’ record-extending eighth constructors\' title win.

Hamilton wilt the first suburbanite in F1 history to make it to a century of both pole positions (taking his 100th in Spain) and wins (claiming #100 in Russia) – with the Briton ending the season with 103 of both.

Hamilton moreover joined Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas as the most frequent podium trio in the sport’s history, vibration the previous record of 14 in Portimao, while Saudi Arabia was the triumvirate’s 20th shared rostrum. Verstappen moreover took the record for most podiums in a season with his 18th of the year in Abu Dhabi.

That race was moreover the 349th and final one of Kimi Raikkonen, the Finn bowing out of the sport without extending the record for most Grand Prix starts.

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4. We witnessed some \'instant classic\' races

We got to watch some sunny races in 2021, and not only when Hamilton and Verstappen were going at each other – although there was plenty of that going on too.

From a frantic encounter in Baku – where both Verstappen and Hamilton failed to score without tyre drama for the former, and ‘brake magic’ drama for the latter – to an action-packed Italian Grand Prix to an epic race in Russia, 2021 delivered races that seem set to go lanugo in F1 lore as the years roll by.

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Meanwhile, 2021 would moreover see the debut of the F1 Sprint format at Silverstone, Monza and Interlagos, all three events proving decisive in the outcome of the weekend – and ensuring a carnival-like undercurrent at the Friday qualifying session, and the fast-paced Sprint itself on Saturday.

5. The epic Saudi Arabia track debuted

2021 witnessed the debut on the timetable of the stunning Jeddah Corniche Circuit, and the inaugural Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The track proved to be a hit with most of the drivers, who revelled in the juxtaposition of Suzuka-like speeds with Monaco-esque barriers looming on all sides.

F1 will be when at the track in early 2022, while this season moreover saw the return of Zandvoort without a 36-year hiatus – Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner describing the electric undercurrent at the Dutch venue as “like stuff in a nightclub for three days” – as well as taking an unexpected-but-welcome visit to Qatar’s Losail International Circuit, with the country duly signed up to host F1 on a 10-year deal from 2023 as well.

READ MORE: ‘It’s trappy to drive’ – The F1 drivers requite their verdict on the Jeddah Corniche Circuit

6. F1 gained a new winner

It unchangingly warms the cockles to see a new winner sally in Formula 1 – and Esteban Ocon became the 111th and newest with a fine exhibit at the Hungaroring, benefitting from Bottas skittling a number of frontrunners at the start to take the lead, surpassing holding off the race-long pressure of four-time champion Sebastian Vettel to take his, and Alpine’s, maiden victory.

That was helped in large part by team mate Fernando Alonso’s staunch defence of Hamilton – the Spaniard having returned to F1 in 2021 without a two-year break, and showing by season’s end that he’d lost none of the Alonso magic.

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7. There were some standout underdog performances

Lando Norris came super tropical to stuff the 112th Grand Prix victor without an extraordinary display from the British youngster in Sochi, Norris taking a shock pole position and leading most of the Russian Grand Prix only to slide off track as rain fell in the latter stages, ultimately finishing a disconsolate seventh.

That was one of only a handful of impressive underdog showings in 2021, Norris moreover forming part of flipside as McLaren took a 1-2 in the Italian Grand Prix, with Daniel Ricciardo ultimatum his first victory since Monaco 2018.

READ MORE: ‘No one cracked’ – Ricciardo reveals the moment in 2021 when he realised McLaren were ‘a tuft of winners’

Elsewhere, the likes of Alonso, Pierre Gasly and Vettel all personal podiums too, while Norris and Carlos Sainz would take an impressive four rostrums each wideness the year.

In total, 13 drivers on the grid would make the podium in 2021, the same number as 2020 – although admittedly some way shy of the ultimate record of 18 in 1982 – while eight teams made the rostrum in 2021, the first time that’s happened since 2009.

Perhaps the ultimate underdog performance of 2021 deserves its own entry, however, to whit…

8. We saw the start of a Williams renaissance (hopefully)

George Russell has punched whilom his weight a number of times since joining Williams in 2019 – but 2021 really saw the Briton step into the limelight.

Perhaps the greatest underdog performance of the year was Russell’s P2 on the grid in Spa – a lap that will doubtless go lanugo in the sport’s annals, and which 2009 winner Jenson Button described as one of the weightier he’d overly seen – while his podium in the foreshortened race was Williams’ first since 2017.

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At the previous race in Hungary, team mate Nicholas Latifi and Russell had taken the team’s first points since the 2019 German Grand Prix – Williams ultimately finishing P8 in the constructors’ standings this year, their weightier finish since 2017 – while Russell’s P8 in qualifying at the Silverstone Sprint was moreover a moment of heart-pounding brilliance.

READ MORE: \'Without Frank, I wouldn’t be here\' – Bottas, Russell, Stroll and Latifi remember former superabound Sir Frank Williams in Jeddah

Poignantly, the team’s founder Sir Frank Williams left us surpassing the season reached its conclusion, passing yonder on November 28, weather-beaten 79. But he would have been proud to see the massive upswing in the team’s performance without seasons of struggle – with Alex Albon set to replace the Mercedes-bound Russell to help protract the form in 2022, when F1 moves to its new era of regulations.