Pre-Season testing was conducted from the 12th of March to the 15th of March for the F1 2021 season. Seeing the results from the above stated days of testing, Alpine( formerly known as Renault) released a bold statement that “ It's not a mid-field anymore, it's just a field.” Does this statement hold any weightage? Let us find out.
Lets first understand what the statement above means. F1 is prominently divided into three categories based on the speed of the car. upper field, middle field and lower field. The upper field consists of the team that is constantly fighting for podiums and race wins. The middle field consists of teams that are there or thereabout. They consistently score points and have a small chance of standing on the podium if one of the teams from the upper field slips up. The lower field consists of the teams that are at the back of the pack, hardly score points and are seldom in the spotlight for the right reasons..
Let's look at what we can infer from each of the individual teams:
Mercedes
Reigning champions for the seventh time in a row now, Mercedes-Benz AMG with their W12 car seemed to be performing rather underwhelmingly during the testing session. They typically have never been the fastest during the testing session but have gone on to win every championship since 2014, leading most to believe that Mercedes have yet again engaged in a practice called “sandbagging”, referring to the performance of the car being intentionally limited for various reasons; not giving away their true capabilities, testing endurance instead of their outright performance, or testing new setups being some reasons why. However, the car lacked on the endurance front as well having completed the least number of laps by any team during testing, mostly owing to a gearbox issue, restricting their first-day’s running. The car itself looked to be a bit more unstable, and 7 time F1 World Driver’s Championship-winning Lewis Hamilton seemed to be struggling to keep the car in line and even uncharacteristically spun the car twice. Only time will tell whether this poor showing will continue into the season.
Red Bull
The RedBull racing team however, have much to rejoice, their new RB16B car looked to be massively improved on the stability front, a massive flaw in the previous cars which seems to be rectified as of the testing session. They were consistently fast and put up the fastest times on the board. New signing Sergio “Checo” Perez seems to be dealing with the ill-fated second car of RedBull’s pretty well and we can expect to see more competition given by the RedBulls this year at the front of the grid. As of testing, this seems to be the fastest car on the grid in 2021 but the Bahrain race will reveal what is yet to be seen.
Mclaren
McLaren jumped ship from Renault engines, which they used from till 2020, back to Mercedes engines, with whom they terminated their engine alliance in 2014 at the beginning of the V6 era. New signing Daniel Ricciardo who interestingly enough jumped ship from Renault as well, looked to be a strong performer in a strong car. The McLaren chassis coupled with the Mercedes powerplant and the hands of Ricciardo and Lando Norris look very promising and have a great chance of finishing in the top 3 again or perhaps even putting up a battle for second place.
Ferrari
Ferrari in the eyes of most, if not all, is the face of formula one racing, their red hues are the most recognisable both on and off the track and to most non-car enthusiasts, represents the pinnacle of road car performance and beauty. This team has a record in pretty much every category of formula one racing and is statistically the most successful team to have graced the sport. It has a legacy of brilliant cars and drivers like Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello, Kimi Raikkonnen, Felipe Massa, Juan Manuel Fangio and Niki Lauda to name a few. But when a brand with such a legacy is caught using illegal bypasses to a regulation to improve their speed, it pulls down all of that legacy, as well as their race pace, and throws it out of the window when the illegal solution is removed. This was the situation for Ferrari, who in 2020, struggled massively with their SF1000 car, which lacked the engine performance for the straights, and lacked stability at the rear end. Charles Leclerc had a (relatively) better time than teammate Sebastian Vettel but the car was one of the worst that the maranello brand had put out, and their performance on the board matched that to the fullest extent. The terrible car was accompanied by some of the worst moments of race planning and strategy that we have seen in modern Formula One. This year around, Charles Leclerc will be joined by former McLaren driver Carlos Sainz jr, as well as by the Ferrari SF21, a car that looks to be more confidence inspiring in terms of stability and has an engine that seems to have good work done on it over the winter break. It is a shame to see ferrari seeming to helplessly spectate the title fight last year and a much deserved revival may very well see a revival of the interest in the sport
Alpine
Alpine, a French sports car brand hailing from the 1950s made their Formula one debut this year. Their car, the Alpine A521, looked to be another strong upper-midfield fighter, especially with returning driver and two time F1 champion Fernando Alonso behind the wheel. the striking blue Renault-turned-Alpine may be a contender for the best looking car on the grid (even with the audaciously large air intake), but does it have the race performance to match?
Aston Martin
Aston Martin was a marque that made its return to Formula one racing, the last time they raced being 1960. The Lawrence Stroll owned Racing Point underwent a rebranding to Aston Martin like Renault did to Alpine. The team seem to be one of the more favored ones among fans due to 4-time WDC Sebastian Vettel being in one of the two seats, the other occupied by the less popular Lance Stroll, who made an average showing last season and well behind teammate Sergio Perez, caused by many mistakes he made leading to him not finishing multiple races, but he made it to the podium twice and has potential to do better this season. Sebastian Vettel’s performance last season was dismal too, owing mostly to his discomfort with the Ferrari SF1000 car he drove last season. They both performed pretty well in testing but reliability issues with the Mercedes-sourced gearbox severely limited their running, leaving them to complete the second-least number of laps after suppliers Mercedes themselves. After their fourth place finish last season, they too, are one of the favorites in the midfield pack, reliability issues aside.
Alpha Tauri
Alphatauri, formerly known as Torro Rosso, is the sister team of Red Bull Racing, a little sister, if you will, and served as a feeder team for younger drivers to gain experience in, before switching over to the main team to contend for the title. However, while it is a sister team, it is beginning to hold its own in the midfield of the pack as well and has very talented drivers in Pierre Gasly, who seems to have found his right footing with the team, and Yuki Tsunoda, who came third place last year in the Formula 2 championship, replacing the Russian “torpedo” and former RedBull and now Alpine reserve driver, Danill Kvyat. The car, powered by a Honda power plant (who have since renounced their F1 engine manufacturing duties and delegated it to RedBull themselves) is one of the better sounding, and with the white rims, one of the more distinctive looking ones on the grid too. The Alphatauri car with Yuki behind the wheel managed to get the second quickest lap around the Bahrain track, second only to Redbull themselves, they completed 422 laps around the track across the three days, tying them for most laps with Alfa Romeo, which shows us that the car is not only fast, but reliable as well.
Alpha Romeo
Alfa Romeo racing was a team that was very impressive in its endurance abilities. It also pointed out the fitness levels of 41 year old Kimi Raikkonen, who drove impressively long stints and also posted the fourth quickest time on the table, ahead of Lewis Hamilton. As of now, nothing can be seen that points to alfa romeo being better positioned than they were last year, but still a good showing from the team.
Williams
Williams was a team that received a mixed response for its new drastically revamped livery. The car was not significantly faster than last year’s, but they seem to be well clear of their backfield competition, Haas. George Russell posted the sixth fastest time of testing towards the end of the third day (like many of the faster laps on the list), just behind Lewis Hamilton and ahead of Ricciardo and Perez. They will be looking to nab a few points this season and overall get a better showing than last time.
Haas
Haas - Haas came back a completely revamped team, with new sponsor Uralkali, a new livery and overalls (controversial for what is very clearly a depiction of the Russian flag, on an American car), new drivers Mick Schumacher, who the fans love, and Nikita Mazepin, who the fans… not quite as much. However, while seemingly most has changed, the car remains largely the same from last year’s car driven by Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen, leaving it the most unchanged car on the grid. This is part of a strategic move by Haas to conserve their development for 2021 which they could spend on the 2022 car, when the regulations change in a major way. This however means that the 2021 car will be dead on arrival due to the lack of development in what was unarguably a lacklustre car to start with even a whole year ago. That, and the fact that two F1 novices are behind the wheel means that we can expect to see Haas dead last for the 2021 constructors championship and the drivers in the last two spots during most of the races too this year.
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