Mercedes - Bottas and Hamilton => Can Bottas version ?.?? get anywhere near Hamilton?
Red Bull - Verstappen and Perez => Will Perez be a genuine ally (or threat) to Max?
McLaren - Norris and Ricciardo => Can the former “rookie” Norris cope with an in form Danny? Aston Martin - Stroll and Vettel => Make or break for Vettel, surely? Alpine - Ocon and Alonso => Does Alonso still have it? If so, could that end Ocon’s time in F1?
Ferrari - Leclerc and Sainz => => Will Sainz be a genuine ally (or threat) to Charles?
Alpha Tauri - Gasly and Tsunoda => Is Yuki really the “next Max” as some at RBR claim?
Alfa Romeo - Raikkonen and Giovinazzi => Surely Giovinazzi MUST beat a nearly 50 year old Kimi?
Haas - Schumacher and Mazepin => Who will come out on top in the rookie battle?
Williams - Russell and Latifi => Will Latifi be able to possibly beat George here and there?
Even though 2021 is pretty much a stable year in terms of car changes, the midfield battle should be more exciting and there are some really nice inter-team battles to look forward to!
Hopefully the RB16B and MCL35M will be able to trouble the W12 a little more than in past years. And who knows, if Vettel finds his groove, he might be able to put the AMR21 (or W11 if you prefer, lol) on the podium every now and again and also trouble the W12.
I’m enjoying McLaren’s attitude and rise the past couple years, so they’ll probably be my team this year. Haas makes it hard to love them, but will enjoy watching Mick’s come-up. Also interested in Seb’s tenure at Aston, will be interesting to see how he gets on there. And of course, seeing my main man Alonso back will be cool.
McClaren produces the best media. They do day in the life stuff that is amusing. I hope the new teammates have similar chill with each other as Lando and Carlos did!
Indy is the top-level of open-wheel racing (and road racing in general) in the US, so yes, it’s US teams for the most part. The driver base is international, though mostly North American. You see the same thing with something like Japanese Super Formula, which is Japan’s top-level open-wheel racing, but has some international drivers in it too.
IndyCar has done international races in the past in places like Brazil or Japan, though they aren’t always well attended and some of them tend to just be exhibition races.
Haas is the sole US representative in F1, though how American they really are is always up for debate. They have a base in North Carolina, but their forward base for all the racing prep is in Banbury, UK and they also have Dallara actually building the cars in Italy, so they’re really only American in ownership.
F1 really is only a British and Italian based sport in terms of actual manufacturing. Sporting wise America tends to go its own way on most things too.
I usually really encourage people I’m coaching to immerse themselves in the history and heritage of motorsport in general. There are lots of great driving lessons to be learned and immensely entertaining stories from decades back that are being lost to time because younger generations seem to care less and less about the godfathers of our sport.
Every weekend there is a free driving clinic going on at different tracks across the world in different series. If you’re serious about improving yourself as a driver, you should be watching and making mental notes on some of the overtaking moves you see at the highest level each weekend.
For example, you can just read through Senna quotes all day and glean a bunch of mental/spiritual driving lessons based on what he did and thought about racing.
I have not, I shall try it. Thanks for suggestion. Much has changed from his era.
@tjkoyen yah I’d be remiss not paying attention. They didn’t make it easy, though. I am a big fan of how liberty media has changed how I access their content.
Speaking of which, here’s a pretty badass pass at Laguna Seca:
