Formula 1’s popularity has grown exponentially over the last decade and a key part of that growth has been the drivers and the personalities that are in the sport.
With the increase in popularity, sports bookmakers have also reported a rise in the amount of people getting involved in F1 betting, as fans try to use their knowledge of the sport to also make some profit. But who are the drivers to follow in the upcoming season? Here, we’ll take a look at who could be hot in 2021.
Lewis Hamilton
Nobody will be shocked to see Hamilton on this list. The 36-year-old matched Michael Schumacher’s record of seven World Drivers’ Championship titles when he won the 2020 season and holds the stand-alone records for most wins (95) and most pole positions (98). He’s dominated the sport since his move to Mercedes and has even received a knighthood for his achievements so far. Hamilton is showing no signs of slowing down any time soon (if you’ll excuse the pun) and he looks set to break the titles record, barring a disastrous 2021 season.
Max Verstappen
The 23-year-old Dutchman became the youngest ever full time F1 driver when he burst onto the scene in 2015 racing for Scuderia Toro Rosso. In that breakthrough season he registered his first ever points with some spectacular efforts and some superb overtaking. His debut season in the sport saw him awarded with the ‘Rookie of the Year’ award, along with two others, at the end of the year. In 2016, Verstappen was promoted to the Red Bull team and landed his first ever Grand Prix win at the Spanish GP in the same year, becoming the youngest driver to win a GP. He already has 10 career wins to his name, and he’ll be hot on the heels of Hamilton in 2021.
Daniel Ricciardo
Ricciardo knows the F1 scene well now and after a relatively good season with Renault in 2020, he will be racing for McLaren in the 2021 season. The 31-year-old Australian is regarded as a veteran in the sport these days and with seven GP victories to his name, he knows what it takes to win. It may be asking too much of him to challenge Hamilton and Mercedes in his first season, but that’s definitely where his employers envisage this deal going. He certainly has the ability to win a few races in the 2021 season and he’ll be in one of the best cars to do just that. F1 enthusiasts will certainly be keeping a close eye on how this new partnership progresses.
Others to watch out for
As well as the usual big names, there are some up and coming drivers who will be looking to upset the status quo in 2021. Charles Leclerc is still pretty new on the scene but is part of a Ferrari team with an illustrious history. Leclerc won the Belgian and Italian GPs in 2019 for Ferrari and despite a quiet 2020, he still managed a respectable 8th place finish in the Drivers’ Championship. Keep an eye out for the 23-year-old from Monaco in the 2021 season.
Due to partner Leclerc for next season is Carlos Sainz Jr., who has had spells at Toro Rosso, Renault and McLaren to date, with his most successful season being 2020, in which he finished 6th in the Drivers’ Championship despite not winning any races. Sainz has likely been signed to play second fiddle to Leclerc, but Ferrari are building a young, exciting team and they should be taken seriously in 2021.
