Formula One News — April 2021

Max Verstappen's father is now working on delivering another young driver to Formula 1.

Toto Wolff has slammed McLaren supremo Zak Brown for predicting an all-new driver lineup for Mercedes in 2022.

Lewis Hamilton says he will not quit Formula 1 simply because he advocates for political causes including environmentalism.

Zandvoort boss Robert van Overdijk remains confident the Dutch GP will take place in 2021.

Fernando Alonso knows that winning races in 2021 is "impossible", according to Alpine team advisor Alain Prost.

Renault needed change at the very top as the F1 team transitioned to its new identity as Alpine for 2021.

JustMercedes link now hurting Aston Martin as the so-called 'pink Mercedes' benefitted from the Mercedes tie-up last year, Aston Martin is now struggling for the same basic reason.

His son may not have won in Bahrain, but Jos Verstappen is confident Red Bull will have a potentially race-winning car at every race in 2021.

Charles Leclerc says he is ready to extend his current Ferrari contract for an even longer period.

Three prominent members of the F1 circus have defended the under-fire Nikita Mazepin.

Esteban Ocon had mixed feelings at the end of the Bahrain Grand Prix. Happy with his race pace and the strategy the team executed during the opening round of the 2021 Formula One World Championship, the Frenchman was disappointed with his P13 at the end of the race, blaming his bad luck in qualifying and the incident with Sebastian Vettel, on lap 44, for his final result.

Otmar Szafnauer was a man in a mission in Bahrain, desperate to explain to everybody the changes introduced in the Technical Regulations for this year had hurt his team and all others with a low-rake a lot more than the teams that, like Red Bull, have long followed the high-rake concept. The Romania-born American could be seen with his lap top in hand, going into the FIA and the FOM offices in the Bahrain International Circuit to show the World Championship organizers and promoters data to validate his point and admitted that right from the start of the weekend in Bahrain, his team knew they were in the backfoot for the early part of the season.

There’s always pressure to the extreme when you work for Ferrari and when you are the team boss and the Scuderia slumps to its worst season in 40 years, you know your job is seriously under threat. Habing spent all his working career at Ferrari, Mattia Binotto knows his future at Maranello depends on the results the SF21 will score early in the season, so it’s no surprise the Swiss-Italian admitted he as relieved with the performance shown by Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz in the Bahrain Grand Prix.

McLaren is one of seven teams that have a new driving pair this year, with Daniel Ricciardo replacing Carlos Sainz alongside Lando Norris, and when that happens, there’s potential for tensions to rise quickly, as both drivers want to show to the other one they are the fastest. Having both drivers qualifying next to each other on Saturday, McLaren lived through some nervous moments in the first minute of the Bahrain Grand Prix, with Norris and Ricciardo going side by side in the first ten corners of the race, before the young Brit finally got the upper hand.

Lando Norris nearly equaled the way he started the 2020 season, when he finished 3rd in the Austrian Grand Prix, but the McLaren driver admitted fourth place in Bahrain, last Sunday, was better than he had hoped for. The young Brit had been surprisingly downcast about his chances to fight at the front the whole weekend, in spite of being 3rd fastest in FP1 and then second quickest in the second session as well. A drop to P7 in qualifying seemed to confirm Norris’ fears, but he ended up the race as “best of the rest”, ahead of the recovering Sérgio Pérez and well ahead of his main rivals, team mate Daniel Ricciardo and the Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.

Dubbed Mr. Saturday by the British press, thanks to his qualifying exploits in the last two years, George Russell proved yet again he Bahrain his speed over one lap when he managed to get into Q2 with his uncompetitive Williams FW43B, but in the race he was unable to keep up with those directly in front of him and completed the inaugural Grand Prix of the season in 14th place, only ahead of the very disappointing Sebastian Vettel and rookie Mick Schumacher.

Dr Helmut Marko does not think Max Verstappen made a mistake by letting Lewis Hamilton re-pass him for the lead and victory in Bahrain last weekend.

Sebastian Vettel is still struggling with pressure, according to his first Formula 1 team boss Gerhard Berger.

Franz Tost says he is "sure" Yuki Tsunoda will go on to become the first world champion from Japan.

Montreal's mayor says she wants the Canadian GP to proceed in June.

Haas' only goal for 2021 is to race Williams at the very back of the grid.

Pat Symonds has bad news for those hoping Formula 1 cars may lose some weight in the future.

Zak Brown says he supports the efforts of the Netflix team that puts together the annual Drive to Survive series - even if they use too much "creative freedom".

Ferrari is "still behind" in the Formula 1 horsepower department, team boss Mattia Binotto admits.

The head of Ferrari's sports car program is not ruling out a Le Mans seat for Charles Leclerc in 2023.