IGNITION

Change is still in the air despite F1’s ‘holding’ year

Here we go again; just more of the same, right? Well, maybe not… Yes, the pandemic is still here, and this F1 season (to begin with certainly) is going to feel quite similar to the last, but that doesn’t mean everything is set in stone and all we’re about to witness is yet another Mercedes coronation while we await the revolution.

Change is in the air already, and that’s what we’re celebrating in this month’s bumper issue.

First up, there are some pretty significant rule changes. As we explain on page 32, the teams have all had to hack back their floors, which are crucial performance differentiators, so the cars will suffer some pretty extreme downforce losses – and Mercedes will surely bear the brunt of that. Pirelli is changing the tyres too – eight tenths per lap slower says Lewis Hamilton – which always throws a curveball at the engineers.

Then you’ve got a token system governing which parts of the car can be unfrozen and which can’t be touched to save costs. Against the drastic financial impact the pandemic has wrought, teams have also got the budget cap to manage – another area where Mercedes stands to lose more than most…

The Mercedes driver line-up is (just about) stable, though it will be interesting to see what effect Hamilton’s unusual one-year contract has on team cohesion, but elsewhere there are a raft of new faces in unfamiliar places (see page 42): Sebastian Vettel, Sergio Pérez, Carlos Sainz and

Daniel Ricciardo have all switched teams, plus rookies Mick Schumacher, Nikita Mazepin and Yuki Tsunoda join the grid. And Fernando Alonso returns to F1, coming ‘home’ to the rebranded Renault team (now Alpine) with which he won his two world titles in the mid-2000s.

Renault’s evolution is just one of several major transformations over the off-season, as F1 becomes a championship made up of valuable franchises rather than live-fast, die-young vehicles of speculation. Mercedes is now co-owned by chief sponsor Ineos, working more closely with Williams, and supplying Mclaren with engines again. Meanwhile, another customer – Racing Point – has become the Aston Martin ‘works’ team (see page 56). Red Bull is set to become an engine builder from 2022, while Ferrari is looking to sportscars while also forging closer ties with its partner teams.

There’s a lot going on, even before you consider the prospect of a reset to zero points and a fresh championship battle to look forward to (see page 72). Mercedes – and Hamilton – are obvious favourites to repeat for the eighth consecutive season (!), but Red Bull and Max Verstappen ended last year stronger and will no doubt be determined to use that momentum to give outgoing engine partner Honda the best send-off possible.

Plenty of reasons already to think again about this season being just more of the same – and we’ll be with you every step of the way.