Thats a Wrap
Wow! What a 2020 season. Firstly, We want to thank you all for your support throughout the year! We have absolutely loved writing our blogs and getting a more in depth knowledge over many different aspects of F1. Some of you may have noticed that we haven’t posted a blog in a month, the reason being both of us have had exams and deadlines which of course come first for the both of us (so we can get our F1 jobs in the future)!! The last 4 weeks in the F1 world have been CRAZY. We have had driver announcements, COVID19 scares, call-ups, sexual harassment claims and miracles – it has been unbelievable and just goes to show how entertaining our sport really is.
When the season finally started in July, none of us knew what to expect. However, the FIA, every team member, and all the background staff have pulled it out the bag and really given us a fantastic season. We are going to do an overview of each team and how we think they performed throughout the season and our predictions for 2021.
10TH PLACE: HAAS F1 TEAM
Sadly, HAAS haven’t had the best season, scoring only 3PTS in the constructor’s championship. We haven’t seen much evolution or improvement from last year, in fact, it seems the team have actually worsened. Both of their current drivers Magnussen and Grosjean will be leaving and heading on to a new venture. Next year the Schumacher name will be back on the grid as Mick moves up to F1 following his F2 championship win. He will be teammates with Nikita Mazepin whom has already caused some controversy before he has even stepped into the teams 2021 car. We hope that this pairing works well, it is definitely a risk to have a rookie line-up but we will keep our fingers crossed.
9th PLACE: FERRARI
What can we say. This year has been awful for the team in red. The only reason they have points is due to their drivers squeezing the absolute most out of the poor cars. Poor Sebastian Vettel has been very unlucky this year and has described the car as being “un-drivable”. Charles has had a positive year considering the car and has managed to step on the podium a few times. Seb will be moving on to the new Aston Martin team for 2021 (which we think he is VERY happy about) however, Charles will be staying and pairing up with Carlos Sainz Jr. We hope that this pairing will work well and they will push each-other to get the most out of the car, while using Carlos’s experience of building McLaren up to podium fighting position to their own advantage. We hope to see these two and the team gain more points than they did this year and see the team in red back up on that podium.
8th PLACE: ALPHA ROMEO
This year the team has kind of gone under the radar, no amazing performances, a lot of poor races however Antonio Giovanazzi has been a first lap wonder this year where he has gained places in the opening lap of almost every race bar the Turkish GP and the most recent one in Abu Dhabi! Kimi Raikkonen has managed to push the car to the limits but the highest either driver has scored has been a 9th place this season but that seemed to be the max for this Ferrari powered car. Both drivers are staying with the team next year so we will have to see if they can use their poor experience from this season improve in 2021!
7th PLACE: WILLIAMS
You might have expected the Williams to have been 10th however, we feel the team has made some major improvements in the last year and their car seems to be making its way to the mid-field. The car, thanks to “Mr Saturday” George Russel, has had many appearances in Q2 this year which is a massive step from last years 0! The team also has new owners and management after Claire Williams announce she would be stepping down from her role in the team after the Italian GP this year, we hope that the new management can help invest their all into this amazing and legendary team in order to help it make its way back to where they should be. The progression of this team only seems to be improving, and while they have a long way to go we hope they can make their position in the midfield more permanent next season . We hope that this progression continues and we can see George Russell and Nicholas Latifi , who are both staying for 2021, show the doubters of Williams what they’re made of! P.s How amazing was George in that Merc?! (don’t bring up the double stack!)
6th PLACE: Alpha Tauri
MONZA! This explains Alpha Tauri’s experience in F1 this year, the team took home their first win since 2008! They have had a great season in terms of racing up the grid in heated battles but the team other than Monza did not have much success. The progress of the cars pace is coming along nicely, with a steady improvement from last year hopefully we can see the team stay in the midfield and push for more podiums in the future. The Russian driver Daniil Kvyat is leaving the team and rookie Yuki Tsunoda will be joining Pierrie Gasly we feel that the team next year is one drivers will be watching in their mirrors for…
5th PLACE: Renault
Renault had a slow start this season with no strong stand-out performances from the outset leaving us to wonder if we would ever see the day Cyril (team principal) would get a tattoo! However, our heads were turned when Daniel Ricciardo finally got his first podium in a Renault at the Eiffel Grand Prix! To continue his success the Australian picked up another 3rd place podium at the next GP in Imola. Esteban Ocon may have been feeling left out from all the podium action his teammate was getting but not for long! The frenchman bagged himself a 2nd place podium finish while racing on the Bahrain outer loop. This rise in podiums from the french team gives us hope that Renault are on their way up the grid, we just hope that the reintroduction of Fernando Alonso into the team will be beneficial in their steps forward.
4th PLACE: Racing Point (Aston Martin for 2021)
Just like their place in the constructors championship this year, we have placed Racing Point 4th! Racing Point have completely shot up the grid this year and we are all here for it! The team may have been ridiculed at the start of the year called out as being the “Mercedes 2019 car”, but their success does not just come from their power unit, this team had two brilliant drivers this year that deserve more credit than they have received. Stroll and Perez have both put their pink panthers up to the podium more than once this season, Stroll gaining 3rd in Monza and Abu Dhabi and Pèrez getting 2nd in Turkey and 1st in Bahrain’s outer loop. While the team only achieved 4th this season, they have faced many struggles with DNF’s while in positions for good points. We hope that these frequent problems can be solved and we can see this team in the fight for top position in the constructors championship. Another minor change ;) that may help this team is the introduction of Sebastian Vettel! The 4-time world champion will join the team under its new name Aston Martin for 2021 and although we are sad to see the amazing talent of Checo leave, we cannot contain our excitement to see Seb in his new team! After their amazing 2020 season the future looks bright for Aston Martin, we just hope this stays true!
3rd PLACE: Red Bull Racing
While you may be shocked that Red Bull are not higher in our rankings, we believe this does their performance this season justice. RedBull have been the only team that has consistently tried to challenge Mercedes for the title this year and managing to compete with the Mercs this year is an achievement in itself but we feel as though there are not many stand out performances from the team as a whole this season. One thing we do want to praise is the amazing mechanics of this team, WOW! After max crashed his Redbull into the wall on the way to the grid in Hungary he gave his mechanics the challenge of fixing the front of his car in 15 minutes, the superheroes completed the job with just seconds to go! Max Verstappen made quite a few appearances on the podium this year even making it to the top spot in Silverstone and Abu Dhabi, his performance this season has been great as he seemed to be the only driver of consistently keeping up with the two Mercs that stormed ahead. Max gained 3rd in the drivers championship this year only a few points behind Valteri Bottas (even with several DNF’s)! Alex Albon is a driver that has such great potential and has put in some impressive performances this year but again the pressures of having Max Verstappen as a teammate have loomed over the Thai driver. Alex managed to bag his maiden podium in the Tuscan GP after many opportunities being snatched from him before. Although it is unclear who will take the seat with Max Verstappen next year, we are ready to see more full team battles between all the drivers of Mercedes and RedBull in 2021.
2nd PLACE: McLaren
McLaren may have not been 2nd place in the constructors championship, the improvement this team has made since 2017 is one that cannot be ignored. After placing 9th in the 2017 constructors championship there seemed to be little hope for McLaren who were paired with Honda at the time but fast forward to 2020 the team have made it all the way to 3rd! One of the driving factors behind this success is the amazing driver lineup of Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz over the past 2 seasons. Norris and Sainz had a great involvement within the team to improve the car and work it back up to the top of the leaderboard this heavy involvement has helped iron out issues that were facing the team and the production of their car. While the team still has a long way ahead of them to reach the black chassis of Mercedes, it has taken the right steps to get back to podium position gaining 3rd in the opening race of the season (Lando) and 2nd place in Monza (Carlos)(so close to a win!). With the car getting faster on Saturdays clenching a P3 by Carlos and a few P4 and 5’s, it is no struggle to see McLaren becoming more dominant in the season to come. Next year McLaren will have two new things coming it’s way, one being a Mercedes engine and the other being a new driver Daniel Ricciardo filling the seat left behind by Carlos Sainz who will move to Ferrari for 2021. The introduction of the powerful and race-winning Mercedes engine to the papaya car will push the McLaren further towards that top step as seen this year by racing point who have come on leaps and bounds when it comes to pure pace. Having the Honey Badger, Daniel Ricciardo, in Mclaren will bring a new even more competitive edge (hopefully lots of stamps licked and sent) to the team while also providing the fans with brilliant content of Lando and Dan (don’t worry Carlando fans they will never be forgotten🤧). These new introductions look like they may only bring more success to the McLaren team who have fought their way back up to be within reaching distance of the top step of that podium. We cant wait to see what 2021 will bring the team!
1st PLACE: Mercedes
This position is one that cannot be debated, Mercedes have been unstoppable not only this season but every season in the hybrid era. Mercedes took their reign to new heights achieving a 7th consecutive world championship title, winning 13 out of 17 races this season! Mercedes have continued to be innovators leading the teams that follow behind them. While many teams have become much stronger than previous years, no team managed to seriously threaten Mercedes’s chances of gaining another consecutive title. With the driver line up looking to be the same for 2021 it is no struggle to see Mercedes being in contention of another word title. Hamilton who also managed to gain a 7th world title, matching the legendary Micheal Schumacher, and Bottas who claimed 2nd place in the driver’s championship this year, continue to lead with targets on their backs from the teams behind with little worry their car will be inferior to those attempting to challenge it. This dominance from the team and its drivers does not appear to be fading any time soon and the possibility of the rising star George Russell filling a seat in 2022 is one that may boost the teams competitive streak even further... Only time will tell!
What are your predictions for the 2021 season?
Let us know on Instagram @fs_formulas!
Thank you for reading!
Soph & Sach
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