The Braking Point: Why F1 could be lacking some chaos in 2021

Yes Lewis Hamilton ran away with the drivers' championship and yes, the Mercedes W11 was dominant, but around the margins we saw some great racing and surprising results.

Pierre Gasly and Sergio Perez securing their debut race wins were obvious highlights, while the slippery Turkish Grand Prix was a standout. In total, 13 of the 20 regular drivers stood on the podium at some point across the season and we had five different race winners.

However, in the most part, we were able to enjoy random and dramatic racing because of attrition that is unlikely to repeat itself with such regularity. Both Gasly and Perez won in freak circumstances you would not bet on happening again during a season where the competitive landscape is set to be so similar.

Now, the reasons for the sport's temporary stasis are understandable and noble in their purpose. F1 desperately needs to change up the regulations and no one could have foreseen the COVID-19 pandemic. Had the pandemic not occurred, we would perhaps be looking forward to one of the most difficult to predict and exciting seasons to date. Instead, we are wary of re-running a flawed formula that may not work the second time of asking.

Looking back on 2013, the most recent example of a season overshadowed by largescale regulatory change, and there are warning signs. After a fairly competitive first half of the year, the championship became a one-horse race following the summer break, with Sebastian Vettel winning the last nine Grands Prix in succession.

Now Valtteri Bottas is closer to Hamilton than Mark Webber was to Vettel at that late stage in his career, while the Australian suffered some terrible luck during that run, but this must represent a cautionary tale. With teams likely to start turning their attention to 2022 almost entirely during the back half of the year, a similar situation is not unlikely.

In 2020, we were able to witness some amazing feats by plucky underdogs and those moments are worth treasuring. But in 2021 there are no guarantees we will get to enjoy the same mayhem and chaos and we could quickly find ourselves wanting to jump forward a few months until the new regulations kick in. If Mercedes had made a couple fewer mistakes last year, we would not have seen Gasly or Perez triumph and relying on such basic errors on the part of a team that is usually so competent for our entertainment is not ideal.

I am not down on F1 and think that 2022 brings with it so much promise and excitement. However, from a spectacle point of view, I harbour slight fears that this bridging year will suffer from the circumstances in which it will play out.