The drivers that need to strike gold before F1's summer break
OPINION: Formula 1 is about to break up for summer 2021, with the title battles finely poised. But it’s not just the latest round of Max Verstappen vs Lewis Hamilton that will be worth watching this weekend in Hungary, as plenty of drivers are eying big results to change the stories of their seasons so far
There are plenty of people in Formula 1 for whom August cannot arrive fast enough.
After 27 races in 55 weeks since the pandemic-delayed 2020 championship finally got underway, the 2021 summer break is being eyed hungrily. The schedule is punishing, F1’s inclination to avoid triple headers now a distant memory, with the run of 12 planned races over 15 weeks in the season’s second half (the 50% point won’t come until Saturday at Spa) still to come.
PLUS: The off-track considerations that led to the Hamilton/Verstappen shunt
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Alex Kalinauckas is Autosport's Grand Prix Editor, covering every Formula 1 race since the start of 2020. After completing a master's degree in journalism at Goldsmiths College University of London in 2014, he worked for a range of motorsport and technology publications while covering national racing as an Autosport freelancer.
A lifelong motorsport fan - no one in his family can explain quite how or why such a development first occurred - Alex joined the Autosport staff in April 2017 as the magazine’s Assistant Editor covering Formula 2 and GP3, before being made Formula E correspondent and Autosport.com’s Plus Editor in March 2018. He lives in north-east London and is constantly frustrated by the Central Line.
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