Everything has changed and yet nothing has changed.
Exactly one year ago today, the 2021 season came to an end.
What had been one of Formula 1’s greatest ever seasons, right up until the penultimate lap of the final race, ended in one of the sport’s most controversial moments.
Senna vs Prost 1989. Senna vs Prost 1990. Schumacher vs Hill 1994. Schumacher vs Villeneuve 1997.
The 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will join these truly momentous, contentious entries in the F1 annals.
The key difference, though, is that all the previous incidents were brought about by the actions of the drivers. Not those in charge.
Crashgate and the 2005 United States Grand Prix could be thrown into the mix as things that were – and 2021 had its own equivalent in Belgium – but those were not championship-deciding catastrophes.
Formula 1 and the FIA have tried to move on from the controversy that brought the sport into disrepute. The drivers, the teams, the fans have all tried to do so too. So has this writer. But have any of us succeeded?
The Last 12 Months
I wrote the below at the start of the season.
“A Red Bull and Max Verstappen domination was the last thing the sport needed as it headed into its new era.
“With the huge controversy of Abu Dhabi having left a bitter taste in the mouth for many, a runaway championship for the man who earned his maiden title via Michael Masi’s questionable decisions on lap 57 at the Yas Marina Circuit would not have been a good way for F1 to turn over a new leaf.”
The use of the past tense there was due to Ferrari’s strong start to the season. It looked as though we were heading towards another epic, season-long battle.
Of course, that is not how things played out.
As Ferrari floundered and failed to capitalise on their excellent car, Red Bull claimed six wins in a row.
And what little hope was left for a championship fight disappeared as F1 returned from its summer break. A mid-season Technical Directive had clearly hurt Ferrari, and Red Bull were able to sail off into the distance.
Verstappen broke the record for the number of wins in a season – and number of points in a season – as he claimed seven of the remaining nine winner’s trophies.
Another Cloud in a Stormy Sky
What made the dominance even harder to take was the revelation that Red Bull had failed to comply with F1’s inaugural cost cap in 2021.
In a story that rumbled on for weeks – if not months – the 2022 World Champions’ financial indiscretions were eventually laid bare for all to see.
Talk of catering issues were nonsensical and frankly embarrassing.
One cannot simply pick and choose which areas of a budget were the ones to fall outside the limit. If $600,000 of food ended up outside of the budget, it’s because you spent $600,000 you shouldn’t have somewhere else.
Was their overspending the sole cause of Red Bull’s runaway victory? No, of course not.
Adrian Newey did his thesis on ground-effect cars and they have a generational talent behind the wheel who will win 9 times out of 10 when given the best car.
Team and driver had such a clear margin over the field in the final standings that they clearly would still have triumphed had they spent a couple of million less.
But that’s not the point.
A sport that was already trying to recover from perhaps its biggest ever sporting mistake, now has another cloud hanging over.
One that, of course, further taints 2021. But will also now cast its shadow over this season and future seasons as the knock-on effects of that overspend continue to grow.
Speaking From Personal Experience
“I have loved F1 since I was about three years old. I want to continue to do so. Please, stop making it so difficult.”
This was how I finished my previous piece, as the rumours began to emerge about the cost cap.
The fact that I haven’t managed to write another article since somewhat tells its own tale.
People love to throw around the term ‘PTSD’ without any real respect for the genuine condition. Let’s be clear – that is not what any Lewis Hamilton fans, Mercedes fans, or just Formula 1 fans have experienced over the last 12 months.
But that’s not to belittle the pain that last season’s finale caused so many people. Myself included.
Yes, full disclosure, I am a Lewis Hamilton fan. I’d like to think that I’ve always managed to deliver my articles without any unfair bias, nevertheless.
I did, however, vent my feelings in an open letter late last year, once the dust had begun to settle.
The truth is, some of that dust still seems to be swirling around, refusing to fully dissipate, obscuring our vision and dampening our enjoyment of the sport.
As much as I may support Hamilton, there are many drivers and teams I like and, above all, I always considered myself primarily a fan of Formula 1.
But when something that you love so much hurts you so deeply, it can be difficult to fully process that and reach forgiveness.
Sport is sport. It has its ups and downs. Every fan will have experienced that, but this was something different.
It was a decision and an outcome that made you question everything. All the emotions, all the time you’d invested – which for me has been a lot, as you can see by this website.
And then when you tried to get up and go again…
Imagine that your partner had cheated on you. They’d apologised, promised to change, and you’d tried to move on. But all you saw over the next year was them having a great time with the person who was the cause of those issues.
That is why it has been so hard to move on.
Hopefully 2023 will bring a closer battle at the front and some form of redemption. If it’s simply another tale of controversy, social media toxicity and Red Bull dominance, there likely won’t be another article this time next year.
