The slight changes to the aerodynamics of the single-seaters imposed by Formula 1 and FIA between the 2020 and 2021 seasons have surprisingly brought the performance of the various teams closer together during the current championship. Many who during this winter predicted a championship with a similar outcome to that of last season have had to change their minds. The decline in performance of Mercedes and the clear growth in performance of Red Bull, which gave continuity to what was shown in the second part of the last championship, are helping to make this year one of the most spectacular and fun of the last 20 years in Formula 1.
However, the Milton Keynes team was certainly not the only team on the grid to make a notable leap forward in performance compared to the seven-time world champion team. A clear improvement in fact was also clear for Ferrari, desolately sixth among the manufacturers in 2020 and fourth this year, a handful of points behind McLaren in the fight to rejoin the top-3. The German site Auto Motor und Sport has lined up the qualifying performances of the various teams over the past two seasons and the evolution of the performance of many teams compared to the silver arrows is evident. Red Bull went from 0.574 seconds of average lead to just 0.110. Ferrari and McLaren, respectively, recovered 545 and 565 thousandths on the Mercedes.
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However, the AlphaTauri recorded the major delta reduction. The team from Faenza, which this year is fighting against Alpine to finish fifth in the constructors’ classification, has in fact recovered – compared to the world champions – as much as 0.622 seconds. The Italian team went through in qualifying from a gap of 1,202 seconds to ‘only’ 580 thousandths. Finally, according to the study of the German site, only two teams have worsened compared to Mercedes from 2020 to 2021. Aston Martin and Haas, which fell by 7 and 46 thousandths respectively in a year.
Speed comparison 2020/2021 (reference Mercedes)
| Team | Gap 2020 | Gap 2021 | Improvement | Gap/km 2020 | Gap/km 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Red Bull | 0,574 s | 0,110 s | – 0,530 s | 0,110 s | 0,009 s |
| Ferrari | 1,031 s | 0,466 s | – 0,545 s | 0,198 s | 0,094 s |
| McLaren | 1,142 s | 0,597 s | – 0,565 s | 0,219 s | 0,121 s |
| Alpine | 1,099 s | 0,868 s | – 0,231 s | 0,211 s | 0,176 s |
| Aston Martin | 0,905 s | 0,912 s | + 0,007 s | 0,173 s | 0,815 s |
| Alpha Tauri | 1,202 s | 0,580 s | – 0,622 s | 0,230 s | 0,117 s |
| Williams | 1,404 s | 1,120 s | – 0,284 s | 0,269 s | 0,227 s |
| Alfa Romeo | 1,459 s | 1,061 s | – 0,398 s | 0,279 s | 0,215 s |
| Haas | 1,645 s | 1,691 s | + 0,046 s | 0,315 s | 0,342 s |
