Home win Verstappen’s highlight of 2021 campaign

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In the round-up: Max Verstappen says his home race win at Zandvoort was the highlight of his 2021 title campaign.

In brief

Verstappen: high-pressure Zandvoort win “really nice”

Verstappen, who won 10 races during the 2021 Formula 1 season, said that the Dutch Grand Prix was a particular stand-out for him, during his maiden championship season.

The Red Bull driver controlled the race on F1’s return to the country it last raced in 36 years earlier.

“The memory in Zandvoort with my home crowd winning, there was a lot of pressure on me to win it, but then to do it was really nice,” said Verstappen. “But luckily, there were a lot of good memories throughout the season.”

Formula E agrees financial limits for teams and manufacturers in Gen3

Formula E has agreed new financial limits, putting in place a hard cost cap for teams where it had previously relied on an overall cost limitation on cars.

The current (2021-22) season is the last for the ‘Gen2’ chassis. For the subsequent two years, teams will be limited to €13 million spending per season, with some exceptions such as driver salaries (consistent with the Formula 1 cost cap). Powertrain manufacturers will have €25 million to spend on research and development over a two-year period.

The 2021-22 calendar was also updated to remove unconfirmed rounds and delete the previously-listed return to Sanya, China. The Berlin and Rome rounds will become double-headers, replacing those events.

Formula 2 post-season testing line up finalised

Formula 2’s post-season testing entrants have been confirmed, with several drivers making moves up to or within the series. Formula 3 champion Dennis Hauger, who won his title with Prema steps up to their F2 squad and Juan Manuel Correa – who was severely injured during the Spa crash which claimed the life of Anthoine Hubert – returns to F2 machinery for the first time since 2019.

New F2 entrants Van Amersfoort Racing will run junior series veteran Jake Hughes for the first two days of testing, before his car will be taken over by Cem Bolukbasi.

DriverTeam
Jehan DaruvalaPrema
Dennis HaugerPrema
Jack DoohanVirtuosi
Marino SatoVirtuosi
Logan SargeantCarlin
Liam LawsonCarlin
Juri VipsHitech
Marcus ArmstrongHitech
Theo PourchaireART
Frederik VestiART
Clement NovalakMP Motorsport
Felipe DrugovichMP Motorsport
Guilherme SamaiaCharouz Racing System
Juan Manuel CorreaCharouz Racing System
Roy NissanyDAMS
Ayumu IwasaDAMS
Ralph BoschungCampos
Olli CaldwellCampos
Jake HughesVan Amersfoort Racing
Cem BolukbasiVan Amersfoort Racing
Amaury CordeelVan Amersfoort Racing
Calan WilliamsTrident
Teppei NatoriTrident

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Comment of the day

As Mercedes continue to deliberate over filing or withdrawing their right to appeal, Dan G says it’s a question of how it will be perceived, either way.

I honestly think they’re weighing up if it’s worth it. There’s bound to be talk of them being sour losers, and Mercedes the car company won’t want that to be associated with that. Plus as Horner said, Merc is getting the prize money for finishing first in the constructors’ championship.

On the other hand, there’s a real issue of F1 losing credibility if this approach of manufacturing “drama” isn’t addressed. But even that might not be bad for Mercedes; it attracts eyeballs, and thus sponsors.

I’m sure there are many parties involved in the decision to appeal.
@dang

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Johnny86, Ovviamente, Matthew Nowell, Kiefer Hopkins, R.J. O’Connell and Godwin Joseph!

Author information

Hazel Southwell
Hazel is a motorsport and automotive journalist with a particular interest in hybrid systems, electrification, batteries and new fuel technologies....

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28 comments on “Home win Verstappen’s highlight of 2021 campaign”

  1. COTD: I wonder if F1 realizes that there are fans like me who watch the sport for the speed of the cars, the track, the engineering side of the sport and the technique in driving the cars. It is not just all crashes, relations among the F1 personnel, overtakes and the battle for 1st place. I have no interest seeing two cars crash each into other even watching live on the track because the cars cost the teams a lot of money and effort into building the cars. They better not have something similar in 2022 because I want to just vomit whenever I hear that entertainment is more important than the sport.

    1. I’m sure they do, and I’m sure there’s a contigent that appreciates that. But growth is the staple of the modern capitalist world. If the audience isn’t growing, then the product isn’t valuable. They need to appeal to more; the younger, the shorter attention span, the more tech-savvy, the other races and genders.

      Sterile doesn’t sell.

    2. I can really relate to your statement as I do watch it for the same reasons. If you look at F1 as a business venture, people like us are already a customer and small in numbers. Hardcore F1 fans are much fewer in between compared to the rest of the entertainment consumers. There is a bigger market out there and they need to appeal to a more general audience. I think the appeal of growing in popularity (hence revenue) outweighs the benefits of keeping a smaller populations desire for pure hardcore racing. Also let’s not forget F1 is owned by Liberty Media. Their business is media not competition.

  2. Jay’s words are the highlight of 20021 season:

    Mercedes is in this sport for the prestige, if F1 gains a reputation for being corrupt (and any team could be the victim, not just Mercedes), then Mercedes might no longer see the appeal of participating. The cover-up over Ferrari engines would have infuriated Mercedes, even though it had beaten its rival, because it tarnished the image of the sport. If F1 keeps appearing in the sports pages of the general press as a dodgy sport, then Mercedes will likely pull out.

    1. Nah, that’s pretty laughable. F1 has always been corrupt, the teams go in eyes wide open. It’s a game of out corrupting the opposition. The sporting aspect is the side-show.

  3. Great cotd, consisely sums the situation up. There is much for Mercedes to lose by going through with the appeal. Can’t wait for the news of their decision.

    1. By accepting FIA’s cheating, Mercedes will allow FIA to cheat ever more shamefully!

    2. Yeah, I agree that the CotD really does get the realistic angle on what is currently going on @skipgamer.

    3. @skipgamer I don’t agree entirely. Mercedes could play both sides of the coin:
      a) Position the appeal to the effect that they do not intend for the result of the WDC title to be overturned, therefore saving embarrassment for themselves, RBR, and the FIA.
      b) State that they will pursue the appeal in order to establish if the FIA’s governance of the sport is robust, and get independent clarification on why unprecedented actions were taken, and assurance that action will be taken to ensure the sport is being governed correctly.
      Think of it another way, while to ‘sore loser’ argument may damage the brand in some peoples eyes, would the wider Mercedes Benz organisation want to be associated with, and invest in, a motorsport that is now so publicly perceived to be corrupt?.

      1. They are appealing the race result. It’s hard to go into an appeal based on the race result with the intention of not changing the race result. They have no grounds to change the race result so it will moist likely be dropped when the lawyers figure this out.

        1. I’m looking at it from the perspective that Mercedes argued there had been a breach of Article 48.12, which if upheld would/could subsequently change the result. It’s semantics, but they are essentially challenging the rule and it’s application, not directly the result, although that’s the intent. Agreements and plea bargaining is common practice pre-litigation, so its not unprecedented, but i take your point and maybe i’m missing something.
          I have no idea if they have grounds to change the results or not. I guess that’s why we’re all waiting for the experts to decide next steps.

  4. A lot of sensationalist tabloid-like or real tabloid stuff but to this date no mention to what Latifi has been going through online lately, shame on this site! No excuses even by British specialised media standards, as some have already offered thier take on it. Pro-Hamilton bias is driving too much an agenda around here!

    1. Must say I am quite baffled by such papers claiming anyone is “hoping Masi can be salvaged” when I seriously doubt anyone inside the FIA even considered he would have to go @rodewulf!

      1. @bascb Yes, it was always pretty desperate expecting that Abu Dhabi would be used as a pretext to get rid of Masi (which, let’s face it, the people calling for it have always wanted anyway – AD didn’t change any minds in that regard).

        He did exactly what was expected of him – ensured that the championship ended under green flag conditions and in a straight fight between the two protagonists. If the opportunity to do that was there, he was always going to take it.

    2. Round-up today:
      Daily Mirror
      The Sun
      Daily Mirror

      1. Wow, that sounds like real journalism.

  5. Is that 9 year old, dried-up milk on Dario’s helmet ?!?

    1. Alledgedly..

  6. Lewis got a knighthood but i thought he already got a knighthood or is this a other one?

    1. Nevermind it’s a otherone.

      1. No, it’s just the official side that was postponed by a covid19

    2. @macleod The knighthood was issued in last year’s honours list (and is effective immediately, allowing Lewis to use the style “Sir Lewis” etc) but the formal ceremony was only yesterday.

      Similar to how Max Verstappen became F1 world champion on Sunday but will formally collect his trophy tonight at the FIA Gala, we hope.

  7. Can someone tell me what the Sun and Daily Fail have reported, there’s no chance I’m clicking on their gutter journalism links to give them some advertising revenue

    1. The fact that those two papers make up the majority of the roundup shows how far into tabloid country this website has come as of late.

      The toxic atmosphere on this website the last few weeks, but especially since last Sunday, makes it very hard (and sad) for me to read. That goes for both the comment section as well as the content.

      I hope when things cool off a little bit I can go back to enjoying this website, which used to be a nice place for enthusiasts to enjoy F1 together.

      1. Sadly, I have to wholeheartedly agree.

      2. IT’S THE “ROUNDUP” of what is being reported in the press, YOU DECIDE if you want to read it.

        1. “Roundup”.. .that’s being generous. “Scraping the bottom of the barrel” would be more accurate

Comments are closed.