We have reached the end of one of the most amazing, thrilling, exciting, stressful (I could go on and on and on) seasons in recent Formula 1 history! The 2021 Formula 1 season has brought us so much great racing action, to some it brought lots of amazing moments, and some have been left with a heartbreak at the end. Things couldn’t have been closer in the title race, with the whole thing basically getting decided in the final lap of the final race, but we will get to that later on in the post. I just wanted to sum up the ending to the season in my own words, and give you my own thoughts and views on the events that happened, so let’s dive right into it!
In my previous (F1) post (you can read it here), I have gone over a few of the best races in my opinion until that point. There were still 7 races left in the season after I had finished writing that post, but now that the season has drawn to a close, I feel like it’s time to take a look at those 7 races as well. I Will not really go into all of the details of these races, but still a general overlook of how the title has been decided is coming your way.
As you can already see by the title, and also if you follow Formula 1, it is obvious who won the Formula 1 2021 season World Drivers Championship. It is Max Verstappen! The first Dutchman ever to become the Formula 1 World Champion! He has had an amazing season this year, and thoroughly deserves the title, however, things could have turned out very differently in those final few laps of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. A bit of luck came his way in the end, but of course, he had to have been in that position to be able to win at all!
The races I would especially like to point out here are the last 4. The São Paulo, Qatar, Saudi Arabian and Abu Dhabi Grands Prix. Lewis Hamilton has put in an amazing effort in all of those races, first, to get equal on points with Max going into the last race weekend, and also being in contention for the title in the last race as well. In Brazil, which was the final Sprint Qualifying weekend of the season, he even got disqualified from the qualifying, due to the DRS system on his car opening more than the rules allow it to, so he started the Sprint Qualifying (or race) from the back of the grid. He made a sensational recovery in that race, but also got another 5 place grid penalty, for changing his internal combustion engine (exceeding the allocated number for the season), but still managed to win that race!
The Qatar and the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix were the newest additions to this year’s race calendar. Qatar replacing the Australian Grand Prix that had to have been cancelled, due to very strict COVID-19 restrictions in the country. We didn’t know what to expect from either of these 2 tracks/races, but they were both amazing! Especially the Saudi Arabian GP! Of course we couldn’t get away from controversy again, but the championship being as close as it was for the last few races, in my opinion, that was to be expected. Max and Lewis collided in the latter stages of the race, but it was Lewis in the end, who eventually got the win there, meaning that they will be coming into the last race of the season equal on points, and deciding the championship in Abu Dhabi!
A lot has already been said about the outcome of that final race, and the controversy surrounding it, but at the end of the day, it could have gone either way, with Max or Lewis winning it on the final lap. It is true that Lewis has driven a perfect race up until that crucial moment in lap 53 of 58, and if it weren’t for Nicholas Latifi’s crash, he would’ve won the race and taken the title. But that wasn’t the case, and in the end, Max was the victorious one! I won’t go into all of the Safety Car period decisions, either by the teams or the race director/stewards, because I feel like we’re just going round in circles on that one. In the end, we have a new F1 World Champion in Max Verstappen and I have no problem saying that he absolutely deserved it! I would definitely say the same thing about Lewis, though, before anyone says I’m biased towards Max, which I’m not. As a Ferrari fan, I couldn’t be more neutral in that. And, as I’m finishing up this post, we have also heard the news about Mercedes deciding not to appeal the final race results, which means that now it’s actually official that Max Verstappen is the 2021 Formula 1 World Champion!
Now, we are in for a long winter break without any racing action, before the F1 circus gets going again at the end of February, with first part of the preseason testing. The 2022 season is most likely going to be very interesting all together, with new regulations, new cars, some drivers switching teams, so we don’t really know what to expect from it at this point in time! Also, I will finally be going to see an F1 race live at a track, I will be going to Silverstone! 🙂 All of this is making 2022 veeeery exciting and interesting, I’m sure once the season gets under way, we will get a lot of excitement from all the racing action on tracks!
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