Pre-season Winter testing switched from the
Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in
Montmeló to the
Bahrain International Circuit in
Sakhir, with three days of running beginning on 12 March. Formula One declined an offer from Bahrain to provide
COVID-19 vaccines for all personnel attending pre-season testing and the season's opening Grand Prix. However, several teams and drivers opted to accept the Bahrain government's offer.
Opening rounds Max Verstappen took pole position on the opening round in
Bahrain. On the formation lap,
Sergio Pérez stalled at the last turn and was relegated to start in the pit lane, leaving his 11th place spot vacant. On the first lap,
Nikita Mazepin spun at turn 3, crashing into the barrier and calling out the safety car. AlphaTauri's
Pierre Gasly collided with
Daniel Ricciardo's McLaren the lap after the safety car ended, while
Mick Schumacher spun off behind the pack.
Lewis Hamilton got past Verstappen on lap 40, but on lap 53 Verstappen overtook Hamilton at turn 4, before being ordered to give the place back because he exceeded track limits. In the end, Hamilton won from Verstappen, and
Valtteri Bottas completed the podium.
Lando Norris finished in fourth and Pérez, after starting from last, recovered to fifth. At the
Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, Hamilton took pole from Pérez and Verstappen. Verstappen went into the lead at turn 1 on lap 1, after it started raining on race day. Mazepin and
Nicholas Latifi crashed at the exit of turn 13, bringing out the safety car. Under the safety car, Schumacher lost control of his car and spun into the pit exit, losing his front wing. On lap 31, at turn 7, Hamilton made a mistake, hitting the wall and damaging his front wing. After approximately a minute in the gravel, he rejoined. The moment he did, his teammate Bottas and
George Russell had a crash at over on the start-finish straight, bringing out the red flag. After the race restarted, Norris overtook
Charles Leclerc for second, but the former was overtaken by Hamilton, resulting in a podium of Verstappen, Hamilton and Norris. Bottas took pole at the . He kept his lead from Hamilton and Verstappen. On lap 2,
Kimi Räikkönen made contact with his teammate,
Antonio Giovinazzi, and was forced into retirement, while Giovinazzi could continue. Hamilton eventually overtook Bottas and won with Verstappen in second and Bottas in third. Pérez and Norris came fourth and fifth, respectively. Verstappen took the fastest lap on the last lap but was soon deleted, due to track limits, meaning Bottas was given the fastest lap point. Hamilton took his 100th pole position in
Spain. On lap 1, Verstappen overtook him at the first turn. Five laps later,
Yuki Tsunoda pulled over at the reprofiled turn 10, marking his first Formula One retirement. Hamilton took the lead after Verstappen pitted on lap 23, but Verstappen took it back on lap 28. However, a slow stop and a decision to stay out until lap 59 let Hamilton into the lead until the checkered flag, Verstappen ended up second with Bottas in third place from Leclerc and Pérez. became the first F1 driver to reach 100 pole positions at the
Spanish Grand Prix, and at the
Russian Grand Prix he also became first to achieve 100 race wins.|220px Leclerc took pole at the
Monaco Grand Prix despite crashing in the final minutes. The crash caused a driveshaft failure, meaning he was unable to start the race. Verstappen started at the front and led from Bottas and
Carlos Sainz Jr. On lap 30, Bottas was forced into retirement after his front-right tyre would not come off during a routine pitstop. Verstappen took the victory, as well as the championship lead for the first time in his career; Red Bull came away from this race with a one-point lead in the Constructors' Championship. Behind Verstappen, Sainz took his first podium for Ferrari, and Norris took his second podium of the season in third place. Leclerc took pole again in
Azerbaijan, this time he was able to start the race. He led for one lap before Hamilton got past on lap 2 at turn 1. Hamilton was held up in his pitstop to allow Gasly to pass him in the pitlane, handing Verstappen the net race lead. On lap 30,
Lance Stroll crashed out due to a tyre failure and brought out the safety car. With Verstappen comfortably leading with six laps to go, he suffered a tyre failure, causing him to crash on the pit straight, bringing out the safety car and then the red flag on lap 46 and 48, respectively. The race was restarted with two laps of racing left. Hamilton went up the inside of Pérez at the restart, but forgot to adjust his brake bias and missed the corner. Pérez won for the second time in his career and took his first win for Red Bull.
Sebastian Vettel took Aston Martin's first podium in Formula One, while Gasly took his third career podium. In
France, Verstappen got his second pole of the season, only to go wide at the first turn and lose the lead to Hamilton in the first lap. After regaining first with an undercut in his first pit stop, Verstappen found himself under heavy pressure from both Mercedes drivers. Verstappen relinquished his lead to pit a second time, one of two drivers to do so, returning to the track 18 seconds behind Hamilton. The speed advantage allowed him to make up the lost time, overtaking Bottas on lap 44 and Hamilton on the penultimate lap, for his third win of the year and his thirteenth win overall. Hamilton, now 12 points behind in the Drivers' Championship, did secure second, and with an overtake on lap 49, Pérez managed to take third place, pushing Bottas to fourth. It was the first race of the season where the race winner also took pole position and the fastest lap, and the first race of the season with no retirements. Red Bull extended their lead over Mercedes in the Constructors' Championship to 37 points after the race.
Mid-season rounds ,
Esteban Ocon took his and
Alpine's first F1 victory after eventually taking the lead starting from eighth when multiple cars collided at the first turn of the opening lap.|220px
Max Verstappen took his third season pole at the
Styrian Grand Prix, the first of two back-to-back races at the Red Bull Ring. On the first lap, three cars collided at the third turn, forcing
Pierre Gasly out of the race. Verstappen won from
Lewis Hamilton, meaning Verstappen extended his title lead to 18 points.
Valtteri Bottas came third, taking his first podium since Spain. Verstappen took pole at the
Austrian Grand Prix, the last race of the first triple header. On the first lap,
Esteban Ocon retired with broken suspension.
Lando Norris received a penalty after being judged to have forced
Sergio Pérez off track. Pérez later received two penalties for doing the same to
Charles Leclerc. Verstappen won the race from Bottas and Norris. Hamilton finished fourth, after picking up damage to the underside of his car, meaning that Verstappen was able to extend his championship lead to 32 points. Hamilton was fastest in qualifying to start in first place for the first ever sprint in the
British Grand Prix. In the sprint, Verstappen made a better start than Hamilton and overtook him before the first corner, leading every lap and winning the sprint with Hamilton second and Bottas third, thus Verstappen started on pole for the Grand Prix itself. On lap five of the sprint, Pérez spun, dropping him to the back of the field, and later retiring, forcing him to start from the pits for the race. On the first lap of the Grand Prix, Verstappen and Hamilton collided at approximately at Copse corner. Hamilton made contact with Verstappen's right rear wheel, causing the tyre to come off and Verstappen travelled into the barrier, causing
the race to be stopped temporarily. Hamilton was penalised for the contact with a ten-second penalty, which he served during his pit stop. Leclerc led most of the Grand Prix, but finished second after Hamilton overtook Norris, Bottas, and Leclerc in the late stages to win the race. Hamilton reduced his gap to Verstappen from 33 points to eight points. Hamilton was again fastest in qualifying to take pole in the
Hungarian Grand Prix. Rainy conditions at the start of the race led to Bottas misjudging his braking and sliding into the back of Norris; this escalated into multiple collisions which eventually eliminated five drivers: Bottas, Norris (who only retired on lap 3), Pérez,
Lance Stroll and Leclerc. Due to the large amount of debris on the track, the race was red-flagged; at this stage, Hamilton led from Ocon and
Sebastian Vettel, with championship leader Verstappen, having acquired damage on the opening lap, in 13th. Hamilton was the only driver who did not choose to pit for slick tyres at the end of the formation lap, leaving him the only driver on the grid for the restart; this saw him drop to last when he pitted on the next lap. In the pits,
Kimi Räikkönen was released into
Nikita Mazepin's path, putting Mazepin out of the race. The newly promoted Ocon held his lead until the end to take his first Formula 1 victory, finishing ahead of Vettel, and Hamilton, who had battled his way back up the classification, and
Carlos Sainz Jr. Vettel was later disqualified for a fuel sample issue, promoting Hamilton to second and Sainz to third. Hamilton's recovery drive saw him retake the championship lead over Verstappen by eight points, while Mercedes also regained their advantage over Red Bull in the Constructors' standings by twelve points. Meanwhile,
Nicholas Latifi and
George Russell were classified seventh and eighth, taking Williams's first points since 2019. Verstappen took pole from Russell and Hamilton in the
Belgian Grand Prix in a wet qualifying session. The race was heavily affected by rain, which initially saw the start delayed by 25 minutes. After two formation laps behind the safety car, the race start was suspended and red-flagged due to poor conditions and lack of visibility. A nearly three-hour delay followed before the race was resumed. After a further three laps, the race was red-flagged again. It was not restarted, becoming the shortest race in Formula 1 history and the sixth to award half-points as less than 75% of the race was completed. Verstappen won by default, with Russell in second and Hamilton in third place. It was Russell's first podium in Formula 1. As a result, Hamilton's lead in the championship was cut to three points from Verstappen. 's victory at the
Italian Grand Prix was the first Grand Prix victory for
McLaren since
2012, and with
Lando Norris their first 1–2 finish since
2010.|220px Verstappen would again take pole at the first
Dutch Grand Prix to take place since 1985 at Zandvoort. He held his lead from Hamilton to take the win at his home race, taking over the lead of the championship by three points. Bottas came third, overtaking Norris, who finished tenth, in the standings for third place. Bottas won sprint qualifying at the
Italian Grand Prix, but was forced to start from the back of the grid after exceeding the quota of one on his power units' components. Verstappen started at the front with the McLarens second and third.
Daniel Ricciardo took the lead on lap 1. A slow stop for Verstappen meant that he ended up alongside Hamilton after the latter made his pitstop. Hamilton and Verstappen collided, ending their races prematurely. Ricciardo led to the end to take his first victory since the
2018 Monaco Grand Prix and McLaren's first victory since the
2012 Brazilian Grand Prix. His teammate Norris finished a career-best second place, whilst Bottas came third from the back of the grid after a penalty was applied to Pérez. After the race, Verstappen was penalised by the stewards for being predominantly at fault for the collision with Hamilton; he was given a 3-place grid-penalty for the next race and two penalty points on his super licence. Verstappen was required to start from the back at the
Russian Grand Prix for exceeding his quota of a number of his power unit components. Norris took his first career pole position, from Sainz (his best qualifying result), and Russell. The running order changed substantially as heavy rain began to fall in the closing laps. Hamilton took his 100th Formula One victory as well as the championship lead, ahead of Verstappen and Sainz.
Closing rounds Lewis Hamilton was the fastest in qualifying in
Turkey, but was dropped down the grid because of a penalty due to a power unit component change.
Valtteri Bottas was promoted to pole position and won the race, his first of 2021. He was followed by
Max Verstappen, who re-took the championship lead, and
Sergio Pérez, who took his first podium since
France. Verstappen continued his momentum in the
United States Grand Prix, taking pole position. Despite Hamilton taking the lead in turn 1, Verstappen was able to win the race with Hamilton in second place, in front of Pérez. The result increased Verstappen's lead to 12 points as Hamilton collected an extra Championship point by setting the fastest lap. Bottas took pole in
Mexico City, but was spun around at the first corner by
Daniel Ricciardo. Another incident behind involving
Yuki Tsunoda and
Mick Schumacher took both drivers out of the race, calling out the safety car. Verstappen took his second win in a row, increasing his lead from Hamilton in second, and Pérez took the final spot on the podium in his home race. Hamilton was fastest in qualifying in
Brazil, but was disqualified the following day for a technical infringement. Bottas won the qualifying sprint, giving him pole position for the Grand Prix. By finishing second in the sprint, Verstappen increased his championship lead over Hamilton by two points, and
Carlos Sainz Jr., who finished third, increased Ferrari's championship lead over McLaren. Hamilton finished fifth in the sprint from last on the grid, but a five-place grid drop due to taking a new engine relegated him to tenth on the grid for the Grand Prix. On race day, both Verstappen and Pérez were able to overtake Bottas on the first lap. Meanwhile,
Lando Norris and Sainz were involved in a separate incident, with Norris getting a puncture. On lap 48, Hamilton caught up to Verstappen and attempted an overtake, but failed and resulted in both of them going off track. Hamilton tried again on lap 59 and got past. He won the race from Verstappen, decreasing Verstappen's championship lead from 21 points to 14 points, while Bottas completed the podium. Hamilton took pole position in
Qatar, while a penalty for failing to respect double waived yellow flags during qualifying forced Verstappen to start from seventh. Hamilton took the win, leading every lap of the race. Verstappen quickly recovered to second place but was unable to threaten Hamilton's race lead despite setting the fastest lap on the last lap of the race.
Fernando Alonso used a one-stop strategy to finish third, less than three seconds ahead of Peréz in fourth, it was Alonso's first podium since the
2014 Hungarian Grand Prix. Bottas and
Nicholas Latifi retired from the race after they and multiple others suffered punctures on track. The result reduced Verstappen's lead in the Driver's Championship to eight points while Mercedes's lead in the Constructors' Championship was reduced to five points. Hamilton took pole position again in the
inaugural Saudi Arabian Grand Prix ahead of Bottas and Verstappen, who crashed at the last corner of his final qualifying lap. The race played host to several incidents which saw the retirements of Schumacher, Pérez,
George Russell,
Nikita Mazepin, and
Sebastian Vettel, with Hamilton, Verstappen, Tsunoda, and
Kimi Räikkönen also being involved in collisions during the race. Hamilton won the race from Verstappen, while Bottas overtook
Esteban Ocon at the final corner to take third place. The results left Hamilton and Verstappen on equal points in the Drivers' Championship going into the final round in
Abu Dhabi, while Mercedes extended their lead in the Constructors Championship to 28 points. , driving for
Alfa Romeo, retired after the season.
Season finale and controversy Verstappen took the pole position in
Abu Dhabi ahead of Hamilton and Norris. During the race, Hamilton had a better start and took the lead into the first turn. At turn six Verstappen attempted to pass, forcing Hamilton to evade by going off the track. Emerging from the corner still in the lead, Hamilton was instructed to give up the advantage he had gained. The pair settled in their positions until the first round of pit stops, with Hamilton gradually extending his lead. He later lost much of his advantage when Pérez, Verstappen's teammate with Red Bull, and who had yet to make a pit stop, made it difficult for Hamilton to pass him, though Verstappen was unable to capitalise. Later, a
virtual safety car period allowed Verstappen to change his tyres without losing track position, which was an attempt to catch Hamilton with fresher tyres. With seven laps remaining, the
safety car was brought out for a crash involving Latifi, and Red Bull used the opportunity to give Verstappen a fresh set of soft tyres, while Hamilton, still on his now-quite-old hard compound tyres, was not pitted. Race director
Michael Masi took the decision to allow only the five lapped cars between Hamilton and Verstappen to unlap themselves before restarting the race with only one lap remaining. Upon the restart, Verstappen quickly passed Hamilton and held him off for the remainder of the lap to win the race and the championship. Mercedes lodged two separate protests against the race's result. Both protests were dismissed, and Mercedes announced their intention to appeal the dismissal of the protest regarding the handling of the restart following the safety car period. A statement from the FIA acknowledged the controversy, and that it was "tarnishing the image of the championship and the due celebration". The statement was made after a meeting of the
FIA World Motor Sport Council, which was scheduled for 15 December 2021, and was described as "extending an olive branch to Mercedes". Mercedes announced that it had withdrawn its challenge to the race result. In addition, Hamilton boycotted the end of season FIA prize-giving ceremony, held on 16 December 2021, and at the time there were questions whether he would continue in F1. Hamilton was investigated for breaching the Sporting Regulations which state the top three drivers in the championship must attend the FIA Gala. Newly elected FIA president
Mohammed Ben Sulayem stated in the immediate championship aftermath that there would be "no forgiveness" for Hamilton's failure to attend the event.
Post-season events Following an FIA investigation and inquiry,
Michael Masi was removed from his role as race director, being replaced by
Niels Wittich and
Eduardo Freitas, with
Herbie Blash appointed as a permanent senior advisor alongside Wittich and Freitas. Hamilton himself revealed that he had been fined for failing to attend the
FIA Prize Giving Gala asking for the governing body to donate the proceeds to underprivileged children who want to get involved in motorsport.
Financial breaches In October 2022, the FIA published their review of the teams' budgets for 2021. Red Bull Racing had committed a minor financial breach (defined as less than 5% over budget) of . Additionally, both Aston Martin and Red Bull were found to have made procedural breaches. Red Bull were punished with a and a 10% reduction in wind tunnel testing time for period of one year, while Aston Martin were fined . Opinion on the outcome amongst F1 team personnel was divided, with Red Bull team principal
Christian Horner "begrudgingly" accepting what he deemed to be a "draconian" punishment, stating that the loss of wind tunnel time could cost them between 0.25 and 0.5 seconds a lap in performance. Alpine's
Otmar Szafnauer and Mercedes'
Toto Wolff felt the FIA's decision was fair, with the latter stating that the "reputational damage" incurred by Red Bull would be enough to deter teams from breaching the cost cap in future. McLaren's
Andreas Seidl, was less satisfied, saying that "the penalty doesn't fit the breach" and hoping for "stricter" penalties for future circumventions of the rules. ==Results and standings==