The longest Formula 1 ever begins

The 72^nd edition of the Formula 1 World Championship begins this weekend with the Bahrain Grand Prix, and not with the traditional Australian Grand Prix, which was postponed to November due to organizational issues related to the pandemic. With twenty-three races on the calendar, six more than last season, it will be the longest Formula 1 World Championship ever held: it will end on 12 December.

 

This year's Formula 1 would seem very similar to last year's, but several relevant innovations are awaiting the reform that from 2022 will completely change the appearance of the most famous car championship in the world.

 

As for the teams, the main innovations concern Renault and Racing Point, which have become Alpine and Aston Martin respectively. Alpine is the sports brand of Renault, which on its return to Formula 1 will be headed by the Polish Marcin Budkowski and the Italian Davide Brivio, Yamaha team manager with Valentino Rossi and winner of the last World Championship with Suzuki. Aston Martin will return to Formula 1 after two brief appearances in 1959 and 1960. Both the team (powered by Mercedes) and the car manufacturer are run by Canadian Billionaire Lawrence Stroll.

 

After forty-three years, this will be the first World Championship without a member of the Williams family at the head of the homonymous team. Frank and Claire Williams, founder and vice team principal (and father and daughter), left their posts after the Italian Grand Prix last September. The family sold the majority shares to US investment firm Dorilton Capital, which has appointed British engineer Simon Roberts, formerly of McLaren, as its new team principal.

 

McLaren has abandoned Renault engines to return to Mercedes, with which it achieved the most important successes in its history between the nineties and the 2000s. For Red Bull and Alpha Tauri, the two stables owned by the Austrian multinational of energy drinks, it will instead be the last World Championship held with official Honda engines: from next year the company will produce them by itself while continuing to use Honda technologies.