2020

The 2020 calendar was rebuilt because of the coronavirus pandemic. The championship opened with the Austrian Grand Prix on 5 July and ran to 17 rounds, the last being the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on 13 December 2020. Three circuits hosted two races in a row: the Red Bull Ring had the Austrian and Styrian Grands Prix, Silverstone the British and 70th Anniversary Grands Prix, and the Sakhir circuit the Bahrain and Sakhir Grands Prix.

Two circuits hosted a championship round for the first time: Mugello with the Tuscan Grand Prix and Portimão with the Portuguese Grand Prix. Three more returned after a break: the Nürburgring with the Eifel Grand Prix, for the first time since 2013; Imola with the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, for the first time since 2006; and Istanbul Park with the Turkish Grand Prix, for the first time since 2011.

Mercedes won 13 of the 17 races and took the Constructors’ Championship for the seventh year running — 573 points to Red Bull’s 319. Lewis Hamilton won 11 of the 16 races he started and became champion with 347 points. Valtteri Bottas was second with 223 points and two wins, and Max Verstappen third with 214 points and also two wins: the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix and the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

During the season Hamilton overtook Michael Schumacher’s tally of wins: the Eifel Grand Prix on 11 October was his 91st — equalling Schumacher — and the Portuguese Grand Prix on 25 October his 92nd.

Hamilton sealed the title at the Turkish Grand Prix on 15 November: starting sixth, he won the race and, with three rounds to go, was 110 points ahead of Bottas. It was his fourth title in a row and the seventh of his career. Racing Point’s Lance Stroll took the first pole of his career in Istanbul and finished ninth, while his team-mate Sergio Pérez came second.

Two races that season produced first career wins. On 6 September Pierre Gasly won the Italian Grand Prix for AlphaTauri from tenth on the grid, with McLaren’s Carlos Sainz second and Stroll third. On 6 December Pérez won the Sakhir Grand Prix — in his tenth season in the championship — with Renault’s Esteban Ocon second, on the podium for the first time, and Stroll third again.

Hamilton missed the Sakhir Grand Prix, and George Russell drove for Mercedes instead: he started second, finished ninth with the fastest lap of the race and scored the first points of his career. His Williams seat for that round went to debutant Jack Aitken.

Toro Rosso raced under the new name AlphaTauri, still with Honda engines. McLaren finished third in the Constructors’ Championship — 202 points to Racing Point’s 195 and Renault’s 181. Ferrari were sixth with 131 points, and Williams finished the season without a point.

Nico Hülkenberg stood in at Racing Point three times: twice at Silverstone — though he could not start the first of those races — and at the Eifel Grand Prix; in all he scored 10 points. At the Bahrain Grand Prix Romain Grosjean retired after a first-lap collision, and debutant Pietro Fittipaldi drove the last two races for Haas.

Williams’ Nicholas Latifi had his first season in the championship. Esteban Ocon returned with Renault after a year out. The 2020 season proved to be the last in the championship for Grosjean and Daniil Kvyat, while Kevin Magnussen and Alexander Albon sat out the following season and came back in 2022.

Before the 2021 season Sebastian Vettel moved from Ferrari to Aston Martin, and his seat went to Carlos Sainz from McLaren; Daniel Ricciardo moved from Renault to McLaren, and Sergio Pérez from Racing Point to Red Bull, where he replaced Albon.