Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2022 i AUTOSPORT

@BenAndersonF1 ‘The lap that decided a championship’. This neat summary of the Abu Dhabi GP by our art editor, Frank Foster, would ordinarily be cause for near-universal celebration. The title settled on the final lap of the season – what a time to be alive! But this was no ordinary season. This is an age of polarisation; divisions amplified and solidified by the toxic power of unfettered and irresponsible social media. It’s true in F1 as it is in life. Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, Mercedes and Red Bull tore lumps out of each other – on track and off – creating an atmosphere of mutual distrust and resentment, which spilled beyond the paddock. Regardless of where you personally sit on the fence that divides these two camps, we can all…

One of the bonuses of shooting on behalf of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix promoters is that you get access to viewpoints no other photographers have. In this case it’s the grandstand at the end of the back straight, the idea being to demonstrate to putative ticket buyers the quality of the view they’re going to get. It was one of the best seats in the house and an overhead perspective on one of the most significant points in the race. Here Max Verstappen lunges inside title rival Lewis Hamilton at Turn 6 on lap one, Max trying to regain the lead after fluffing the start. A controversial trip across the run-off area for Lewis would follow… Where Yas Marina, Abu Dhabi When 5:02pm, Sunday 12 December 2021 Details Nikon…

Way back in 2008, around the back of the McLaren garage after the race at Interlagos, I found Lewis Hamilton and his father having a quiet moment together after Lewis won his first world championship. It was beautifully poignant and I was very pleased to capture a similar scene between Max and Jos Verstappen in the aftermath of the Abu Dhabi GP. They were behind one of the huge LCD boards F1 now uses as a backdrop for the postrace interviews in parc fermé, but I saw a TV camerman shooting the scene so I thought I’d investigate. For me it encapsulates the emotion of achieving a long-held ambition. Where Yas Marina, Abu Dhabi When 6:48pm, Sunday 12 December 2021 Details Canon EOS R5 24-105mm lens, 1/60 @ F6.3…

@benedwardstv A SHIFTING OF MINDSETS FOR A NEW SEASON? The final laps of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix shifted thoughts for all of us who had been engrossed in such an unpredictable season. From assuming near the end that Lewis Hamilton would become an eight-time world champion, to watching Max Verstappen take his first title, the result changed our perception and future outlook on Formula 1 in subtle ways. Yet for those who were actually putting on the show, especially the two competing gladiators, the mental shift could be far more significant. Verstappen’s father Jos has often reported his surprise that Max can cope with the pressures of competing at the highest level in such a relaxed way, but tension was written through Max’s eyes going into that final race.…

As Max Verstappen partied until the sun came up following his dramatic world title win in Abu Dhabi, he was celebrating what he called his “final achievement”. Verstappen always made clear that winning the world championship would not change his life: even in the immediate aftermath of his win, he repeated his feeling that since he had now accomplished what he had set out to do, any success beyond this would be a bonus. But a little under 48 hours after he finally made it to bed, Max was back in the cockpit and in full title defence mode. Post-season testing in Abu Dhabi might lack the glamour of the race weekend, or the full-on intrigue of pre-season running in Spain or Bahrain but, in 2021, the two-day session was…

Race 2 – Emilia Romagna Grand Prix Lewis Hamilton had overturned Red Bull’s pace advantage to snatch an unlikely victory in Bahrain. At Imola a characteristically brilliant Q3 lap earned him pole position ahead of Sergio Pérez and Max Verstappen – but, given the RB16B’s superiority, Lewis needed to maintain track position from the start. But Verstappen was faster away, hooking up neatly while Hamilton didn’t quite nail his starting procedure. From third on the grid, Max was side-by-side with Lewis as they entered Tamburello, and determined to own the inside line. Hamilton tried to hang on but then had to back out to avoid a collision, clattering over the kerbs. Race 4 – Spanish Grand Prix Victory in Portugal, where the track favoured Mercedes, extended Hamilton’s lead in the…

IN SOME WAYS, ELIO DE ANGELIS… reminded me of Chris Amon. He wasn’t as good as Amon – not many were – but he, too, had an abundance of natural ability, and was considered ‘too nice a guy’. It was as if God gave them the talent but forgot the ruthlessness. For Elio, like Chris, racing was one of the good things of life, but neither lived like monks. Both smoked, enjoyed a glass or two, were a little disorganised – and both would have had it no other way. Perhaps upbringing had something to do with it. There was no element here of the boxer from the Bronx tenements looking to fight himself out of poverty. De Angelis, like Amon, was born into a wealthy family and grew up…

1 FIA waves ‘play on’ as Verstappen lunges and Hamilton goes off It took less than a lap of the 58 scheduled for 2021’s title showdown to get controversial. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen had pole for the decider but fluffed his start – “I dropped the clutch and there was just not a lot of grip” – allowing Lewis Hamilton to power past from second on the grid. Mercedes appeared to have the legs on Red Bull after practice and the first part of qualifying, but an aerodynamic tow from team-mate Sergio Pérez – worth 0.1 seconds – plus what Christian Horner described as “insane” driving from Verstappen in Q3, meant Max to beat Lewis to pole by nearly four tenths of a second. An earlier mistake in Q2 forced…

WILLIAMS: A WELCOME WIN (OF SORTS) One of the most tawdry and unedifying affairs in late-period Formula 1 may be approaching settlement. No, not the FIA race director deciding on an extemporaneous interpretation of the rulebook in Abu Dhabi – that matter is still very much live – but the mysterious case of the missing Williams sponsor. In May 2020 the venerable grand prix team announced it was parting ways with its recently arrived title sponsor ROKiT, an “innovative, rebellious and proud” (its words) group with interests in everything from telecommunications to e-bikes via beverages and – dread phrase – “content production and distribution”. It was certainly rebellious when it came to settlement of monies owed. In a series of hearings last year, a London Court of Arbitration tribunal presided…

ANDREW BENSON Andrew analyses how Max Verstappen managed to come out ahead of Lewis Hamilton in one of F1's craziest title battles (p40) ADRIAN MYERS Adrian visited Brackley to shoot portraits for our Mercedes feature on the team's technical efforts in 2021 (p66) MARK GALLAGHER This month Mark talks with Jacques Villeneuve about his title success, 25 years on, and the influence his father had on his career (p92) LUKE SMITH Luke stayed in Abu Dhabi for F1's postseason test, and his take on the new 18-inch wheels and the drivers on show is on page 30…

I felt like Max was curiously muted in the immediate aftermath of the race, almost as if he couldn’t believe he’d done it and won the world championship – or that he had, but was half expecting it to be taken away from him again, what with the post-race brouhaha. Patience paid off – over an hour after the end of the race, Max emerged from his interviews and got down to a proper celebration with his crew. Red Bull’s mechanics are as competitive a bunch of people as you’re ever likely to meet. They’re absolutely dedicated to Max and this win meant the world to them – the joy is written all over their faces. Where Yas Marina, Abu Dhabi When 8:10pm, Sunday 12 December 2021 Details Nikon D6…

WHY F1 MIGHT BE OVER FOR HAMILTON 01 The FIA has set out its process for an investigation into the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix farrago, and the outcome will have a significant influence on whether Lewis Hamilton remains in Formula 1. In January, GP Racing contributor and BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer Andrew Benson reported that Mercedes insiders say Hamilton has “lost trust” in the governing body because of its handling of the race, and will not decide whether to return to F1 until he sees the results of the inquiry. This will be the first big test of the authority of newly elected FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem. Inevitably, given the circumstances, discussion of this matter has been driven down several rabbit holes by partisanship. But this is not…

ASSESSING REAL PERFORMANCE IS COMPLICATED The 2021 season will certainly be remembered for years to come, and one hopes the lasting memories will be of the competitive fights throughout the field rather than some of the more controversial aspects. It is perhaps inevitable that a close battle will lead to more occasions when driving standards and even regulatory procedures become the focus of attention and, when the battle is close at the front, it is inescapable that polarised opinions will be formed. But let’s put that aside for a moment and examine how the teams performed over the course of the year, in terms of the absolute performance of their cars. It might seem simple to determine the performance of the cars each weekend, but it is in fact remarkably…

No one knew it at the time, but the pattern of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship battle was set way back in the pandemic spring and summer of 2020. As the world shut down, teams and rule-makers worked in something close to panic to keep the sport afloat. Among the raft of changes decided upon was to use the same cars for two seasons, with only limited changes allowed. To keep a lid on speeds, because of concerns about tyre integrity, parts of the aerodynamic surfaces at the back of the car were cut away. These changes – initially apparently small and relatively inconsequential – were the biggest single factor behind a season of Mercedes domination in 2020 turning into one of the most intense and closely fought campaigns…

TEAM BOSS TOTO WOLFF famously described Mercedes’ fast-but-fractious 2017 W08 car as “a diva”. Recalling that sobriquet during the 2021 world championship run-in, Lewis Hamilton went a step further when discussing the challenges of taming the W12: “This one,” he said, “is a monster of a diva.” For all that Lewis dominated the 2020 season, repeating the feat, even with a carry-over car, was never going to be easy. A budget cap, new limits on in-season development, a resurgent Red Bull, a new technical ruleset on the horizon, along with new aero regulations announced relatively late in the day – all these factors would conspire to render 2021 a most perilous tightrope act. It was a period of change behind the scenes, too, as Mercedes technical director James Allison ‘moved…

IF NETFLIX HAD BEEN AROUND in 1996 it’s not hard to imagine a Drive To Survive-style docu-series centred on Williams pairing Jacques Villeneuve and Damon Hill. Both sons of famed fathers who died early deaths – Gilles Villeneuve while driving for Ferrari in 1982; Graham Hill in a plane crash shortly after the end of a career that had crowned him world champion twice. Jacques, fresh from winning the 1995 Champ Car title and Indy 500, would arrive in F1 in spectacular fashion, grabbing pole position in Melbourne on his debut, before indulging in a season-long battle with Williams team-mate Damon for the world championship. Having finished runner-up to Hill in 1996, the then 25-year-old French Canadian would go one better the following year, claiming the title despite Michael Schumacher’s…

I know Honda has said it’s never going to return to Formula 1, but I really hope the company changes its mind at some point down the line. I can think of fewer organisations more passionate about racing, and the decision to bring forward developments originally planned for 2022 has paid off. This is straight after parc fermé, as you can tell by the fact that Max still has his crash helmet on – he literally legged it towards the team after getting out of the car and I had to run after him with my gear in tow. This is a historically significant moment and you can see what it means to all involved, not least Mr Yamamoto on the left. Where Yas Marina, Abu Dhabi When 6:41pm, Sunday…

When Red Bull went over to the matt effect paintwork for the 2016 season there were those who declaimed it as a backwards step, but I’ve never had a problem with it. In fact, Red Bull’s livery is a nice mix of strong colours and it really lends itself to dramatic action shots where you use slow shutter speeds to produce a motion blur. And you’re going to see more of them as photographers shift over to Canon’s excellent new mirrorless R5, which can go slower than I thought possible. Max’s driving style lends itself to dramatic imagery. I got this shot in Q3, where he produced a lap that was special even by his high standards. Where Yas Marina, Abu Dhabi When 5:58pm, Saturday 11 December 2021 Details Canon…

@_markgallagher OUTCRY OVER KINGSPAN DEAL A LESSON FOR F1 Gill Kernick well remembers chatting to Yasin El-Wahabi. They would sometimes share the lift together, chatting about her work and his ambition to one day start a business. He borrowed her bike pump. A sociable young man with a bright future. Yasin died together with his 16-year-old sister Nur, eight-year-old brother Mehdi and their parents in the Grenfell fire disaster of June 2017 – just five of the 72 residents to die in the UK’s worst residential fire since World War II. In September I shared the stage with Gill at a safety conference in Denmark. She spoke to the audience about Grenfell while I described F1’s safety journey since Imola 1994. Gill lived in Grenfell Tower between 2011 and 2014,…

What’s your view of the 2021 championship? It’s been a tough season. We had some dominant races, but also in general I think Mercedes was a stronger team. It’s been a really enjoyable battle, having two teams fighting and pushing flat out to the end. But of course at times you think this might not be it, we might not hang on ‘til the end. But there are always surprises, and some races I think we won which we shouldn’t. But then also I had quite a bit of bad luck, such as with the tyre getting taken out [a blow-out while leading the Azerbaijan Grand Prix] and these kind of things. So we also lost a lot of points like that; all in all, it’s been intense but a…

STEVEN TEE GP Racing’s principal photographer has been focusing on F1 cars since 1984, following in the footsteps of his father, Michael. Steven, MD of Motorsport Images subsidiary LAT, also found time to give us his thoughts on F1’s return to Zandvoort, 36 years after his only previous visit GLENN DUNBAR Glenn started working at LAT back in 2002 but, after 18 years, opted to to go freelance at the start of 2020. In addition to his regular race weekend duties, Glenn also shoots on behalf of a team, and this season swapped pink for green as Racing Point morphed into Aston Martin SAM BLOXHAM Edinburgh-based Sam started out doing trackday photography before joining LAT in 2013. He became a senior photographer at Motorsport Images in 2021 and, in addition…

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VANWALL Authors Denis Jenkinson, Cyril Posthumus, Doug Nye Price £90 porterpress.co.uk Vanwall wasn’t the first team conceived to establish British supremacy in F1 but it, rather than BRM, was the first to win the constructors’ championship. The story of this short-lived racing organisation is a fascinating one and this book, originally published in 1975, is rightly considered a definitive history. Co-author Cyril Posthumus was the associate editor of GP Racing’s sister magazine Autosport from launch in 1950, while Denis Jenkinson was one of the most lauded racing journalists of his era. This new edition benefits from the addition of a wealth of original documentation, from letters and telegrams to factory technical records, along with period photographs captioned by the eminent racing historian Doug Nye. GRID LEGENDS Price £49.99-£79.99 (pre-order only)…