2021

The 2021 World Championship had 22 rounds, from the Bahrain Grand Prix on 28 March to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on 12 December 2021. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won 10 races and became world champion for the first time with 395.5 points; Lewis Hamilton, who won eight races, scored 387.5. The Constructors’ Championship went to Mercedes for the eighth year running — 613.5 points to Red Bull’s 585.5 — even though Red Bull had more wins: 11 to nine.

Two more races went to other teams: Esteban Ocon won the Hungarian Grand Prix for Alpine, and Daniel Ricciardo the Italian Grand Prix for McLaren. Two new circuits joined the calendar — Lusail with the Qatar Grand Prix and Jeddah with the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix — and Zandvoort returned with the Dutch Grand Prix for the first time since 1985.

The championship lead changed hands five times. Hamilton won the season opener in Bahrain and led after each of the first four rounds, but from the Monaco Grand Prix on 23 May Red Bull won five races in a row — four for Verstappen and one for Sergio Pérez in Baku — and after the Austrian Grand Prix on 4 July Verstappen was 32 points ahead of Hamilton. At the British Grand Prix on 18 July Verstappen retired on the first lap after a collision and Hamilton won, and after the Hungarian Grand Prix on 1 August Hamilton was back in front.

The Belgian Grand Prix on 29 August lasted a single lap in the final classification, and half points were awarded: Verstappen got 12.5, Hamilton 7.5, and George Russell took his first podium with second place for Williams. A week later Verstappen won at Zandvoort and regained the lead. At Monza on 12 September both title contenders retired after colliding, and McLaren finished one-two: Ricciardo won, with Lando Norris second. It was the team’s first win since 2012.

At the Russian Grand Prix on 26 September Hamilton took the 100th win of his career and moved two points ahead, while Verstappen, who started 20th, finished second. In Turkey, where Valtteri Bottas won, Verstappen retook the lead, then won the United States and Mexico City Grands Prix to stretch his advantage to 19 points. Hamilton replied with three wins in a row — in São Paulo, where he started tenth, in Qatar and in Saudi Arabia — and the rivals arrived at the finale level on points.

Before the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on 12 December 2021 Verstappen and Hamilton had 369.5 points each, with Verstappen ahead on wins — nine to eight. Verstappen started from pole, Hamilton second. A few laps from the end the safety car came out; the race was restarted before the last lap, the 58th, and on it Verstappen passed Hamilton.

Verstappen won the race and the title: the win and the fastest lap gave him 26 points, Hamilton got 18 for second, and the final score was 395.5 to 387.5. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz finished third. After the season the FIA reviewed its race control procedures, changed them and replaced the race director.

Racing Point raced as Aston Martin, and Renault as Alpine. McLaren switched from Renault to Mercedes engines, so four of the ten teams used Mercedes power: Mercedes themselves, McLaren, Aston Martin and Williams; Red Bull and AlphaTauri ran Honda engines. Ferrari, sixth a year earlier, finished third in the Constructors’ Championship with 323.5 points, McLaren fourth with 275, and Haas ended the season without a point.

At three rounds — Silverstone, Monza and São Paulo — a sprint was held on Saturday to set the grid for Sunday’s race; the top three got three, two and one point. Verstappen won the sprint at Silverstone, Bottas those at Monza and São Paulo.

Yuki Tsunoda made his debut with AlphaTauri, and Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin with Haas. Fernando Alonso returned with Alpine after two years away and finished third at the Qatar Grand Prix — his first podium since 2014. At the Azerbaijan Grand Prix Pérez won his first race for Red Bull, and Sebastian Vettel, in his first season with Aston Martin, finished second. In his first year at Ferrari Carlos Sainz scored 164.5 points and finished ahead of Charles Leclerc.

Robert Kubica drove two races for Alfa Romeo — at Zandvoort and Monza — in place of Kimi Räikkönen. For Räikkönen, the 2007 champion, it was his final season: he had raced in the championship since 2001 and completed 19 seasons. Antonio Giovinazzi and Mazepin did not start the following season either, and Bottas moved from Mercedes to Alfa Romeo after five years, with Russell taking his place.