Who Are The F1 Drivers For 2021

Neither of Alfa Romeo's current drivers, Kimi Räikkönen or Antonio Giovinazzi, have a contract for 2021. The oldest driver on the grid, 40-year-old Räikkönen is likely headed towards retirement, especially in light of his pointless start to the 2020 season. Antonio Giovinazzi's performances with Alfa Romeo since the start of the 2019 have been solid rather than spectacular, though the only Italian driver on the grid is favored to keep his seat with the team in 2021. That leaves at least one seat open at Alfa Romeo next year, and there's a reasonable expectation that this will go to a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy. Ferrari's young driver programme has no fewer than five members on the Formula 2 grid this year, but the most likely contenders have to be Callum Ilott, Robert Schwartzman and Mick Schumacher. Ilott is currently leading the championship from Schwartzman, but the son of 7-time World Champion Michael Schumacher is also being groomed for a career in Formula 1.

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.

Given that the two teams share the same ownership – and have been known to swap drivers around – it makes sense to consider Red Bull and Alpha Tauri's driver prospects together. At present, the only driver from the Red Bull stable with a confirmed contract for 2021 is star driver Max Verstappen. At the start of the year, the 9-time winner signed a contract that will keep him at Red Bull until the end of 2023. Alexander Albon and Pierre Gasly are also likely to retain a seat for 2021, but in which team? Racing alongside Max Verstappen is clearly a difficult job in a team increasingly centered around the Dutchman; Gasly was out of his depth in the early part of 2019 but has since found excellent form with Toro Rosso/Alpha Tauri. In contrast, Albon made a positive start for Red Bull in the latter part of the 2019 season but has been struggling in both qualifying and the races this season against Verstappen.

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. 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. 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.

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. 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. A slow stop for Verstappen meant that he ended up alongside Hamilton after the latter made his pitstop.

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. No other driver this century has had as successful a start to a single-seater career than Lando Norris, with an incredible five titles in his first three seasons.

Following a circuit-learning Ginetta Junior campaign alongside his world championship-winning final year in karts, Norris started off with the British Formula 4 title, as well as successful cameos in the German and Italian series. It wasn't until his fifth year in single-seaters that Sergio Perez took an overall win, having spent his formative years dabbling in A1GP and the secondary class of British F3 as well as the more regular entry-level series. In F3 he did win the title though, and he stuck with the underdog T-Sport team for a season in the primary class where he won a respectable four races, regularly leading the championship before fading late on. Most notably, Nico Hulkenberg drove for Racing Point thrice during the season.

He replaced Sergio Perez in two races at Silverstone and Lance Stroll at the Eifel Grand Prix. Mercedes reserve driver George Russell also stepped into Hamilton's seat for the Sakhir Grand Prix, after the seven-time world champion tested positive for the virus. With Verstappen only off the podium six times in 2020 and Albon only on it twice Red Bull took the decision to pounce on Perez, who had an extraordinary second half of the 2020 season. 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. 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.

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. 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.

All eyes will be on the return of two-time world champion Alonso, who will link-up with the former Renault team. Much is also expected of French talent Ocon, who claimed a first podium when finishing second in the Sakhir Grand Prix. Former world champion Vettel had a last season to forget at Ferrari as he finished down in 13th place, making the podium just once when third in Turkey. Fronting up at the rebranded former Racing Point team will be a fresh start for the German as he aims to roll back the clock – with Aston Martin on the grid for the first time since 1960.

Formula 1 Race Winners List 2021 Canadian Stroll – son of the team's part owner Lawrence Stroll – is in his fifth F1 campaign and will look to build on a year in which he claimed his first pole position and finished on the podium twice. There's not much to say about Max Verstappen's junior single-seater career, beyond it redefining what was expected of young drivers of the present day. The World Karting champion debuted in America in the Ferrari Driver Academy-organised Florida Winter Series, where he was up against some of F3's finest.

He took fastest lap in his first race, was on pole for his third, and a winner by his sixth. The three drivers in their first F1® season - Yuki Tsunoda, Mick Schumacher, and Nikita Mazepin - have experienced quite different seasons so far. Yuki has racked up a respectable 18 championship points, whereas the two Haas drivers are stuck on zero points. Nobody can doubt they've gained a ton of Experience in the races up until now, with all three drivers getting a +3 boost in that stat. Yuki has been out-qualified by teammate Pierre Gasly in every qualifying session so far - that coupled with a pair of P20 finishes in qualifying has meant his Pace has dropped by -5, the most significant Pace drop of the field. 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.

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 was required to start from the back at the Russian Grand Prix for exceeding his quota of a number of his power unit components. The running order changed substantially as heavy rain began to fall in the closing laps.

Hamilton took his 100th Formula One victory as well as the championship lead, ahead of Verstappen and Sainz. 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. 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.

Pérez later received two penalties for doing the same to Charles Leclerc. Hamilton finished fourth, after picking up damage to the underside of his car, meaning that Verstappen was able to extend his championship lead to 32 points. Max Verstappen took his third season pole at the Styrian Grand Prix, the first of two back-to-back races at the Red Bull Ring. On the first lap, three cars collided at the third turn, forcing Pierre Gasly out of the race. Verstappen won from Lewis Hamilton, meaning Verstappen extended his title lead to 18 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 dominant team in Formula One since 2014, Mercedes have extended their record to seven straight drivers' and constructors' championships. Despite mechanical trouble during testing, Hamilton will start as favourite to deliver a record-setting world title success.

The Briton, who signed a new one-year contract extension in February, shows no signs of taking his foot off the gas after surpassing Michael Schumacher's number of victories – with a century of wins now very much on the horizon. Last year's runner-up Valtteri Bottas will again be Hamilton's team-mate for a fifth straight campaign. He was in European F3 the next year, winning his second race but claiming just two other podiums. His second season was better, and with a less experienced team, and while he was overpowered by Stroll in the title race, Mercedes recognised his potential and signed him up.

Working with F1's top team unlocked a new level of performance, and Russell brushed off unreliability to become GP3 and F2 champion with ART. Pierre Gasly raced only for French operations during his first three years in cars, which started with wins in French F4 that earned him some early attention from Red Bull. His rookie Eurocup season wasn't enough to retain that initial support, but he somewhat unexpectedly won the title the following year, leading Red Bull to sign him outright to its junior team as he made the natural step up to FR3.5. The German qualified in P3 for the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix in Silverstone.

This put him at 15th place in the 2020 drivers' standings, ahead of multiple full-time Formula 1 drivers on the grid. The 24-ear-old Albon, who was replaced at Red Bull Racing's F1 team by Sergio Perez for 2021, is getting a chance in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters sports car series. The DTM ride comes with Red Bull backing and will allow Albon to race when there are no conflicts with is schedule as an F1 reserve driver. Charles Leclerc is undoubtedly one of the most talented drivers in the field, as he re-proved with pole laps in Monaco and Azerbaijan this season. He's on a long-term contract that takes him through to the end of 2024 and is a key piece to Ferrari's ambitions of returning to a championship contender.