By Editorial
So far there is every indication that the 2021 Formula One season will be unpredictable, and that is exactly what fans have been begging for this past decade.
The sport has become something of a procession in recent seasons, such has been the dominance of Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton. The Silver Arrows have been near unstoppable, dominating from pole to podium, and it is easier to count their failures then their successes during that period.
This year could be different.
Red Bull look stronger than ever, and the midfield behind them looks even more competitive. In such an atmosphere the pressure can build, and with it comes unforced errors from drivers and teams alike. There was a taste of that strain last year at both the Monza and Sakhir GPs when the bigger teams lost all sense of themselves, allowing dramatic scenes and unfancied victories.
Hopefully, that will be the case more often than not this season due to the dogfight between the top two teams, Mercedes and Red Bull, allowing McLaren, Alpine-Renault, AlphaTauri, Ferrari, and even Alfa-Romeo to take advantage of any mistakes.
As intriguing as F1 will be, MotoGP is where the real excitement could be this year. Although not as fast as F1, the world’s most elite motorcycling championship can be unpredictable. In the 14 races competed in a Covid-19-truncated racing calendar last year, there were 10 different winners. Indeed, MotoGP enamoured itself to a sports-hungry population as it dished up magnificent racing during the hardest of lockdowns.
It helps, of course, that we have our own Brad Binder participating in the elite field, while South Africans can also look forward to his younger brother Darryn being one of the favourites in the Moto3 class. Brad has a real chance to improve on his overall 11th-place finish last year, while many pundits are talking up Darryn as a possible world champion this season.
Either way, whether you are an F1 aficionado, or a motorbike fanatic, there is plenty to look forward to from the petrol-powered world of sport in 2021.
The Star