Covid forced F1 to delay its new regulations — giving us the thrilling 2021 season as a result. But what would have happened without the pandemic? asks Mark Hughes. And what would this year look like?
Imagine there had been no Covid pandemic in 2020, that the virus hadn't escaped the Wuhan laboratory (no I don't for one moment buy the official bat theory, given that the virus broke cover in the very city doing the only active research on it in the world). Obviously the most important statistic is that probably most of the 6.9 million people to date who have died from the virus would still be alive. But in a more esoteric F1-related sense, imagine how recent history may have looked.
You will recall that the planned all-new ground effect regulations, set for 2021, were postponed for a year for reasons of cost as F1 was facing a terrifying loss of income. Instead, for '21 we got a trimmed rear floor version of the then-existing regulations. That floor trimming cost the low-rake cars (Mercedes) a lot of performance and played a very significant part in bringing about the end of Mercedes domination. Together with Red Bull's progress, it made the '21 season a fantastically closely-matched contest between those two teams which, magically, had as their respective lead drivers the perceived king and the obvious pretender to that title.
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