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Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB16B overtakes Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W12
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Analysis

How F1's biggest crisis helped trigger its exciting 2021 season

Formula 1's return to Austria this weekend comes under exceedingly different circumstances to its last Spielberg visit, when F1 took its first tentative steps out of the global COVID shutdown. But the tightrope F1 walked in 2020 has ultimately led to the most exciting season of the hybrid era

It is almost hard to believe how different a situation Formula 1 is in right now compared to the last time it rocked up to race in Austria. Rewind 12 months and grand prix racing had arrived at the Red Bull Ring for the delayed season opener unsettled and uncertain.

The COVID-19 pandemic, and more specifically the lockdown that effectively shut down the globe, had left the series facing its biggest crisis in decades. While F1 owners Liberty Media and governing body the FIA could weather the storm triggered by the lack of income from no races, for teams it was a different matter.

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