Formula 1 teams have gone back to the drawing board over the winter and are now unveiling their new designs for the 2021 season, due to start in Bahrain on 26 March. Hot or not – which cars win the F1 looks race?
Mercedes
How do you improve on near domination? Well, signing up Lewis Hamilton and team principal Toto Wolff for another season is a pretty good start…Mercedes’ new car – the AMG F1 W12 E Performance – is looking in good shape too. Imagine seeing this beast in your mirrors.
Red Bull
Max Verstappen won the final race of 2020 and finished third in last year’s drivers’ championship – whether he can close the gap on Hamilton and Mercedes is the big questionRed Bull’s latest model will benefit from a new Honda engine, brought forward a year after initially being pencilled in for the 2022 season
Aston Martin
Four-time F1 champion Sebastian Vettel, meanwhile, assures us he has found ‘peace’ at Aston MartinVettel joins Lance Stroll at the former Racing Point team and is ‘excited’ by the prospect of driving in the first Aston Martin to take to an F1 track in 60 years
McLaren
McLaren finished third in last season’s constructors’ championship and have replaced their Renault engine with a Mercedes in 2021New driver Daniel Ricciardo joins Lando Norris eager to impress and spent a recent track day at Silverstone getting to grips with the McLaren MCL35M Mercedes
Alfa Romeo
Now you see the new Alfa Romeo team of Kimi Raikkonen, Antonio Giovinazzi and Robert Kubica……and now you don’t, but the Alfa Romeo C41 is pretty good to look at all the same
Alpha Tauri
Alpha Tauri boss Franz Tost wants his team to be the best of the rest and lead the charge in a packed F1 midfieldHonda protege Yuki Tsunoda joins team-mate Pierre Gasly in the Alpha Tauri AT02 and will be hoping to not just be along for the ride
Alpine
Alpine – the new name for Renault – is a French car manufacturer famous for its lightweight sports cars. The striking blue paintwork, plus a splash of red and white, is a nod to the team’s twin bases in Paris and Oxfordshire.The returning Fernando Alonso will hope to match the team’s ambition with some weighty performances on the track, assuming he can regain fitness after fracturing his jaw in a cycling accident in February
Haas
Not actually the new car yet, but Haas have a striking new livery for this year – almost like an Alpine away kitThe team will give Mick Schumacher – son of Michael – his debut F1 drive
F1 teams still to launch their cars for 2021 include Williams, on 5 March, and Ferrari, on 10 March.
