Magazine: F1 2021 season preview edition

The 108-page special issue covers all the teams and drivers, and picks out some of the big stories that are likely to play out this year.

Despite the much-discussed and supposed carryover of last year’s machines, there are plenty of changes and question marks to stir the interest ahead of the new campaign.

Chief among those is whether Red Bull can finally put together a championship challenge. As Autosport Grand Prix Editor Alex Kalinauckas shows in the first piece of our preview, testing indicates this could be Red Bull’s best chance yet to halt the Mercedes steamroller.

We speak to the key people about Ferrari’s recovery, Sebastian Vettel’s new life at Aston Martin, McLaren’s return to Mercedes power, Fernando Alonso’s comeback with Alpine, and the 2021 crop of rookies.

Autosport technical editor Jake Boxall-Legge takes a look at the development war taking place thanks to the new rules, while former championship-winning engineer Tim Wright runs the rule over each team. Ex-F1 racer and pundit Karun Chandhok also gives his views, having watched Bahrain testing trackside.

The Formula 2 and MotoGP championships also get going this weekend and we preview both. Guanyu Zhou is China’s best hope for an F1 driver and needs to make the most of what could be his last chance in F2, while Marc Marquez’s future will play a big role in how the pinnacle of motorbike racing plays out.

The Sebring 12 Hours was the big motorsport event last weekend and was narrowly won by the Cadillac of Sebastien Bourdais, Loic Duval and Tristan Vautier. Gary Watkins explains how the JDC-Miller MotorSports machine went from being in the wall to Victory Lane in a dramatic encounter.

There’s all the usual news from the international and UK racing scenes, a look at safety in club motorsport, and the current generation of turbo-hybrid F1 engines gets the controversial ‘In defence of’ treatment.

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