2021

Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali says multiple venues in Africa have showing an interest in joining the World Championship schedule. Africa is the only inhabited continent not to currently host a grand prix with South Africa’s Kyalami last holding an event in 1993. Kyalami currently holds an FIA Grade 2 safety rating but the venue is awaiting a fresh inspection which could see it move to Grade 1, potentially paving the way for Formula 1 to return. Kyalami was due to host a round of the World Endurance Championship this month but it was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Formula E, meanwhile, has held events in Marrakesh, in Morocco, which was the only other African country to host a grand prix, back in 1958. World Champion Lewis Hamilton last year commented his priority would be for Formula 1 to return to Africa. “There are areas that I can tell you have shown interest; basically in North Africa and South Africa,” Domenicali is quoted by RACER. “This is something that’s very important I think in terms of having new places or old places with heritage back in Formula 1. “We don’t have to forget that we have lost some European races that now are showing interest in being considered again. “For sure if we are doing a good product you may say that if the value is high you may reach the same kind of business without being too numerous in terms of races, and that could be the approach. “If you are able to do the right choices, I think that will be the way to go. It may not be in the shortest time but that is the target, I would say.” Formula 1 has added Saudi Arabia to its 2021 calendar, as the only new venue, while Zandvoort is due to return after its planned 2020 comeback was postponed due to the pandemic.

The Portuguese Grand Prix is set to be confirmed on the 2021 Formula 1 calendar in a meeting of the Formula 1 Commission on Thursday. Racetrackmasters has learned the current vacant May 2 slot on the calendar is set to be taken by Portimao, the circuit that last year held the first Portuguese Grand Prix since 1996. It had been hoped an announcement confirming the finalised calendar could be made sooner but a rise in coronavirus cases held up the process with F1 monitoring and evaluating the ever-changing situation. Portugal was recently added to the United Kingdom’s ‘red list’ with travellers returning from the country required to quarantine in a hotel for 10 days. Unlike with previous travel restrictions, elite sportspeople are not exempt. With the Spanish Grand Prix following directly after the Portimao weekend, however, it was unlikely personnel would have planned to return home between races, although it does mean some will stay in Europe until the quarantine period has elapsed. 2021 F1 calendar28 March – Bahrain GP18 April – Emilia Romagna GP2 May – Portuguese GP9 May – Spanish GP23 May – Monaco GP6 June – Azerbaijan GP13 June – Canadian GP27 June – French GP4 July – Austrian GP18 July – British GP1 August – Hungarian GP29 August – Belgian GP5 September – Dutch GP12 September – Italian GP26 September – Russian GP3 October – Singapore GP10 October – Japanese GP24 October – United States GP31 October – Mexico City GP7 November – Sao Paulo GP21 November – Australian GP5 December – Saudi Arabia GP12 December – Abu Dhabi GP

Formula One teams will hold a vote on Thursday to determine whether sprint races should be introduced to grand prix weekends. F1 bosses have put forward the idea of a shorter race on Saturday, which would replace qualifying, and determine the grid for Sunday’s grand prix. The new format could be trialled at this season’s Canadian, Italian and Brazilian Grands Prix. Eight of the 10 teams will need to vote in favour of the idea on Thursday to turn the concept into reality. F1 chiefs are keen to shake up the format of a GP weekend which currently sees two practice sessions on Friday, followed by a third on Saturday ahead of qualifying. The second practice session on Friday would be replaced by qualifying to make up the grid for Saturday’s proposed shortened race. It is expected that the top eight drivers in the sprint race would be awarded points which will count towards the championship. Testing for the new season takes place in Bahrain in the second week of March, with Lewis Hamilton to begin his bid for an unprecedented eighth world championship in the Gulf kingdom a fortnight later.

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner has warned the team’s new drivers that they will soon have a problem on their hands if they come together on the track. Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin will both make their debuts in F1 as part of the American squad’s 2021 line-up, and Steiner understands that both will be keen to make an impression. However, he has also made it clear that there are boundaries as to how far they can take their battles. “[They are] two ambitious young drivers who want to show who is the better one,” Steiner told RTL. “If they fight without damaging the team, I have no problem with that. “Only [if they do] when they get in their car, I’ll have a problem and then they’ll have a problem.” Steiner appreciates that the two youngsters will be on a learning curve in 2021, but hopes that they can learn from any errors and go into the 2022 season as much more developed drivers. “For me, it would be a success to have two drivers at the end of the year who have learned a lot and are ready for 2022, so that we don’t make any more mistakes then,” the Italian explained. “[They need] the chance to develop. At the end of the year we should still have two young, but also experienced drivers. Two ‘young-experienced’ drivers should come out.” It sounds likely that the plan is for the line-up to remain the same in 2022. “Just one year wouldn’t do much. A rookie needs a year, has to get used to the team and to Formula 1. Then in the second year you can make progress. The driver and also the team around the driver.” Despite the challenge ahead, Haas will be hoping to make steps forward after a difficult season in 2021 saw them finish in ninth place in the constructors’ championship, with just three points to their name.

After plenty of speculation over the past few months about his future, Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes finally agreed a new one-year deal yesterday. The seven-time world champion had been out of contract since January 1, but has now committed to the Mercedes outfit for another season at least. The new deal makes him the highest-paid driver on the grid by some distance. Hamilton dwarfs his teammate Valtteri Bottas’ salary by a cool £34m. He is still paid almost double his nearest rival on the grid Max Verstappen. Charles Leclerc, the promising Ferrari driver, and the experienced Daniel Ricciardo are tied in third place, with both picking up a cool £10.19m per year from Ferrari and McLaren respectively. Leclerc’s teammate at Ferrari Carlos Sainz and four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel, starting his first season at Aston Martin, complete the top six with them both earning £7.28m per year from their respective teams. Fernando Alonso, widely thought of as one of the finest drivers of his generation, alongside Hamilton, is in seventh place. Hamilton’s teammate Bottas is down in eighth place. Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Alfa Romeo complete the top 10 list with £4.37m and £3.64m respectively. Top 10 driver salaries in 20211) Lewis Hamilton: Mercedes – £40m 2) Max Verstappen: Red Bull – £18.2m 3) Charles Leclerc: Ferrari – £10.19m 4) Daniel Ricciardo: McLaren – £10.19m 5) Carlos Sainz: Ferrari – £7.28m 6) Sebastian Vettel: Aston Martin – £7.28m 7) Fernando Alonso: Alpine – £6.55m 8) Valtteri Bottas: Mercedes – £5.82m 9) Sergio Perez: Red Bull – £4.37m 10) Kimi Raikkonen: Alfa Romeo – £3.64m

Former Haas F1 driver Kevin Magnussen says he doesn’t have “much interest” in returning to Formula 1 as a stand-in for one of Haas’ new signings in 2021. Magnussen was recently announced as Peugeot World Endurance Championship driver and will be racing for the team when they will be staging a comeback in 2022. After losing his Haas seat at the end of 2020, bringing to a close a six-season run in F1, Magnussen will compete in the IMSA SportsCar Championship in North America this year with Chip Ganassi Racing. Haas team principal Guenther Steiner had revealed he would consider calling upon the services of former drivers Magnussen or Romain Grosjean if the American outfit needed a substitute to replace either Mick Schumacher or Nikita Mazepin this year. This comes as the F1 teams are making preparations to have stand-in and reserve drivers who have played a very major role in the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic. Magnussen’s former teammate at Haas, Romain Grosjean declared he would be open to stepping-in for a one time-off appearance with an F1 team. Magnussen on the other hand declares that the given role does not stand to be appealing to him. “I think it’s pretty difficult to say at this moment,” Magnussen said about being a potential F1 stand-in. “I don’t think it would really be that interesting.” “I’m always going to be there for the team, I spent some good years with them and I’ll be available for advice. Guenther is a good friend, as are many people in the Haas Formula 1 team. But any talks about racing for like a one-off race, I don’t really have much interest in that.” “I like to be fully focused on what I’m doing, and I think, again, I miss winning too much. I’ve done seven years in Formula 1 – doing one more race, just for the matter, I don’t think it’s that interesting.” The 28-year-old driver also said he pretty much considered that his F1 career was over. “I mean, if Mercedes came and asked if I wanted to drive, I think everyone would look at that very seriously. But I think I’ve given Formula 1 a very fair shot.” “I think I’ve tried my best to be very successful in this sport, I feel very very lucky to have been able to live my childhood dream of racing in Formula 1, I have a trophy at home from a Formula 1 race, which is something I was dreaming about as a kid.” “I just feel like I gave it a good shot, I’ve done it and I feel like I’m ready to go and win some stuff again, so that’s really where I’m at.”

Callum Ilott will appear during some Friday practice sessions in 2021. That is the news from Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto, who has already announced that while the 22-year-old Briton missed out on a race debut this year, he will be Ferrari’s official test driver and reserve instead. Ilott, alongside Robert Shwartzman, is another key member of Ferrari’s driver development ‘academy’. “We have Mick (Schumacher), who is starting his Formula 1 career at Haas, and we have other talents in Formula 2, like Robert Shwartzman and Marcus Armstrong,” said Binotto. “Callum Ilott will be our test driver and will be in the simulator quite often, and he will also drive free practice sessions.” Ilott is likely to get his Friday practice outings with Ferrari-powered teams Haas or Alfa Romeo.

Formula 1 is looking to trial a ‘sprint race’ format in 2021. The teams earlier baulked at Liberty Media’s plans to radically spice up the weekend format, and new CEO Stefano Domenicali ruled out reviving the ‘reverse grid’ idea. “That is over,” international media reports quote the Italian as saying. “That is something I can tell you. “It is important to think of new ideas to be more attractive or interesting, but we must not lose the traditional approach to racing. I think we learned that when we changed the qualifying format all the time. “What we are studying is what could be the approach of the so-called sprint race on Saturdays. We are wondering if this could be tested already this year,” said Domenicali. “There are ongoing discussions with the teams.”

A new project based in Monaco – simply called the Monaco F1 Racing Team – is aiming to join the grid at some point in the future, spurred on by a recent comment by F1 boss Stefano Domenicali. The project – spearheaded by management firm Monaco Increase Management (MIM) founded by Salvatore Gandolfo – is a second effort by the latter to put an F1 team on its rails. In 2019, Gandolfo’s MIM hooked up with junior outfit Campos Racing to study the feasibility of fielding a Spanish-based outfit in F1. At the time, discussions were held with then F1 boss Chase Carey although nothing concrete came out of the talks. Nonetheless, MIM apparently kept its project idling and even targeted an entry in 2021, as F1 introduced the sport’s budget cap and regulation overhaul. But following last year’s disrupted season, the new rule book was pushed back to 2022, while F1 included its 2021-25 Concorde Agreement a provision that forces any new entrant to pay a massive $200 million ‘anti-dilution’ entry fee, with the amount divided among F1’s current ten teams. However, last week, F1’s Domenical said that he would be prepared to waive the hefty fee that protects the teams’ current prize money distribution under certain specific conditions, pertaining to “cases that need to go deeper into the discussion without that money.” That potential opening is appealing to Gandolfo and now represents a solid incentive for him to work on bringing his project to a concrete reality. “The current Monaco F1 Racing Team Project was the first to actively discuss the possibility of an entry with the F1 governance, as early as 2019, and to set up a structure accordingly, realising the potential of the new technical regulations that was initially supposed to come into force in 2021 (and was subsequently delayed because of the pandemics),” said MIM in a statement published on Monday. “We believe that the recent statements of the new F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali, which suggest that the [$200m] entry fee for new teams could be waived, represent a step forward in the right direction.“We appreciate the open attitude of both Stefano and the FIA and are ready to take the necessary steps in order to have our application finalised.” The Principality’s Automobile Club de Monaco, the promoter of the F1 Grand Prix, has reportedly not objected to MIM calling its project ‘Monaco F1 Racing Team’.

Toto Wolff says the decision to only agree to a one-year contract extension with Lewis Hamilton was the result of both parties wanting time to finalise a longer deal. Mercedes ended weeks of speculation on Monday when it announced that seven-time Formula 1 world champion Hamilton would be staying on with the team in 2021. But the fact that only a single-season contract was agreed prompted some surprise, and fuelled talk that 2021 could be the British driver’s last season in F1. Speaking to media on Monday, Wolff explained the background to Hamilton’s contract length – and made clear that there was a desire from both to delay lengthier discussions regarding 2022 and beyond until the current season got going. Wolff said that complications caused by both he and Hamilton catching coronavirus, which derailed hope of talks taking place towards the end of last season, forced a change of plan. “We jointly agreed on a one year deal,” said Wolff. “First of all, there is a substantial regulation change in 2022. “We also want to see how the world develops, and the company. Plus on the other side, it’s because we kept it very late. “We wanted to discuss the contract at the end of the [2020] season between the Bahrain races and then obviously, Lewis didn’t feel well. “In the end, we started our conversation just before Christmas so it was important to get it done as soon as possible. “And in that respect, we thought, let’s postpone the discussion about 2022 and onwards to a later stage in 2021.” Wolff explained that the ongoing uncertainties about the impact of coronavirus on F1, and especially in relation to team budgets, meant that it was difficult to make certain commitments now about a longer term contract. That is why he feels contract talks in summer will be much clearer – and will allow time for proper discussion. “There are uncertainties in the world that affect the way that the sport can operate, that have an influence on our revenue, TV monies, and on sponsorship income,” he said. “Daimler, Mercedes, is in a huge transformation towards electric mobility and that means investments. So we are living in a financial reality that is very different to what it was a few years ago. “But having said that, we are totally in line, Lewis and me and the wider group at Mercedes about the situation. So there was never any discrepancy in opinion. “It was just that we felt we could get a good signature on the 2021 contract because we just need to get going and then find some time during 2021, earlier than this time around, to discuss the future. “And it’s not only specifically to 2022, but also beyond. And that is not something that we wanted to carve out via videoconferencing between Christmas and the end of January.” Wolff also rubbished any talk of Hamilton demanding a driver veto in his contract to avoid being partnered with another superstar driver, like Red Bull ace Max Verstappen. He added that suggestions pay talks had hit a sticking point over a potential revenue share of Mercedes incomes were “baseless”. “On the specific clauses that were out there in the media, I don’t know where they came from because none of that is true,” he said. “I actually read about this, and I found it interesting, but the truth is that there was not one second of discussion about any driver specific clause. “He has never asked for that in the last eight years and it’s a team decision. “And the other clause about a revenue share – that came out of nowhere. “That rumour was baseless too, so none of that was ever part of our discussions.”