The 2021 Formula 1 season is here and upon us. The excitement is already reaching the fever pitch level and we can't wait to see those loud speed demons and super fast cars blasting away on those smooth tracks. This year's events start off in Bahrain, which is more of a reverse to last years season where the two Bahrain Grand Prix races almost closed out the season.  

Interestingly, all 10 teams that will be participating in this season's F1 races have all completed their Pre-season track testing in their various new cars with the Mercedes F1 team of champion Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas completing a combined 304 laps over three days of testing. Comprehensively, the 10 teams competing in the 2021 Formula One Season include:

• Alpha Tauri
• Williams 
• Red Bull Racing
• Alpine 
• Alpha Romeo Racing
• Aston Martin
• Mercedes 
• Mclaren
• Ferrari
• Haas F1 Team

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Now let's have a closer look at each of these teams and see what they will be offering in the new season, especially as we explore their cars and drivers. But before then get excited with the Free Practice highlights of the Bahrain Grand Prix below,

FP1 Highlights: 2021 Bahrain Grand Prix

Scuderia AlphaTauri

The Scuderia Alphatauri F1 team will have a new driver in the face of Yuki Tsunoda who will be replacing Daniil Kvyat who has left Alphataura to join Alpine as that team's reserve driver. The other driver and Alphataura's main man Pierre Gasly will also compete alongside Yuki, as the Italian racing team owned by Red Bull aims to claim this year F1 crown.

The Scuderia Alphatauri Honda Drivers for the 2021 season

Remember the Alphatauri is the sister team of the famous Red Bull F1 team and this is the second year since this team became known as the Scuderia Alphatauri, as it was formerly known as the Scuderia Toro Rosso. 

This year, the team introduced a new car as is the tradition but what we have in the skin and stomach of this new machine is more about continuity. The new car maintains its use of the Honda engine which this year is a standard Honda RA621H 1.6 Liters (1600cc) V6 turbocharged engine that is combined with an 8-speed hydraulically actuated gearbox.

The Scuderia Aplhatauri 2021 car, the AT02

The year's car has had its front suspension completely redesigned by both the Red Bull and the Scuderia Alphatauri teams. The car also makes use of a Carbon Composite Monocoque chassis and Red Bull/Scuderia Alphatauri Braking system.

In preparation for the opening race, the Scuderia Alphtauri team completed as many as 422 laps of testing with Frenchman Pierre Gasly completing 287 laps while Yuki was able to complete a total of 185 laps. On the last afternoon of testing, Yuki even came the second on the standing only behind Red Bull's Verstappen.

The AT02 taking in all the data

The Scuderia Alphatauri hitting the tracks

Williams

Another very iconic F1 team, Williams racing, also introduced her new car for the 2021 season. Interestingly, the ownership of the F1 racing team only changed hands last year for the first time in 40 years after being in the control of its founder Sir Frank Williams. The new owners of the team Dorilton Capital are now poised to take the racing outfit to greater heights.

Williams 2021 F1 Car, the FW43B

Williams FW43B plan view

On the driver's seats, Goerge Russel and Nicolas Latifi continue their driver's partnership for the Williams racing team and will hope to make more podiums this year and possibly aim for the title. This year, the team has decided to open up a little bit more against the team's previous stance and has even begun collaborating with Mercedes Benz.

This new collaboration has seen a few new ideas on their FW34B, still though the car remains almost the same but for weight-saving measures which Williams say will "give the full range of ballast to move the weight distribution to more precisely match the needs of each circuit."

Red Bull

Red Bull come into the 2021 F1 season with the tag of the most favourite team to lift the crown for this year's events. The new drivers pairing of Sergio Perez, who only joined the team recently for the new season and the team's main driver, Max Verstappen, will hope to stay ahead of the pack with their hot new car which Reb Bull has nicknamed the RB16B. 

The New Red Bull Drivers team pair

Interestingly, the favourite tag of the Reb Bull team seems to be looking that way considering the team's solid performance in the 3 days preseason testing at the Bahrain tracks where Max Verstappen came tops in the overall preseason testing. 

The RB16B seems to be holding up really well and has offered very little in terms of issues with both the teams drivers reporting the RB16B engine being stable and solid. The aerodynamics also seems to be solid, too with the team experiencing little issues even on low fuel and soft compound.

The new car continues to be powered by a Honda engine with 6 cylinders that delivers as much as 900 hp while weighing about 150 kg. So expect the Reb Bull team to give Mercedes Benz a real push for the title this season.

RB16B is set to take the new F1 season by storm

The RB16B is powered by a 6-cylinder Honda Engine

Alpine

The Alpine F1 team will be a bit different from last seasons with the departure of the team's main driver Daniel Ricciardo who ended his union with the team at the end of last season. Coming in his place is a two time F1 Champion who is coming back to the F1 grid after retiring in 2018. Fernando Alonso will be leading the Alpine F1 team on the tracks with a fellow Alpine driver who is entering his second year with the Alpine F1 team, Esteban Ocon.

Both drivers will be hitting the tracks with the new car, the 753 kg Alpine A521. The new car retains most of the last season features with the exception of a few changes. The car is powered by a Renault E-Tech 21 V6 engine that pumps out over 950hp of hard power juice. 

When the A521 was put to the test for the first time by the team's drivers, the car held up real well and Fernando who has not raced on an F1 track for over two years could complete as much as 206 laps combined through the 3 days of preseason testing, bettering the efforts of fierce rival Lewis Hamilton. See photos of the Alpine A521 below,

The Alpine A521 weight just over 750 kg

Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon will race for the Alpine F1 team 

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Alfa Romeo Racing

The Alfa Romeo racing comes into the 2021 F1 season on the back of a not so cool 2020 F1 season that saw them finish in the Class C category, way behind the guys in the midfield. Interestingly, the team votes to maintain her driver pairing of Antonio Giovinazzi and veteran F1 driver Kimi Räikkönen while Robert Kubica remains as the team's reserve driver for the new season.

The 2021 drivers team of the Alfa Romeo Racing

The Alfa Romeo team has also decided to continue its partnership with the Italian carmaker Ferrari, as the Italian engine builder hopes to drive the team to a podium finish this year. Will Alfa Romeo make a podium this Year?. Well, we hope so, but going by the preseason test performance we are a bit very much cautious with what we hope for. The Giulia GTA seem not to have upgraded when it comes to pace and was stuck in the bottom Class C segment of the guys on the track.

With this, the team might really struggle to outpace the likes of AlphaTauri and Aston Martin but may likely do better against the likes of Williams and Haas. See more photos of the Giulia GTA (C41), the newly modified Alfa Romeo F1 car for the 2021 season.

 The Alfa Romeo C41

Kimi Räikkönen will lead the way with his Giulia GTA 7

Mercedes 

Mercedes come into this season as the drivers Champion as well as the constructor's champions from last year. The team has been really dominant within the last three seasons with British driver Lewis Hamilton leading the way for them while fellow teammate Valtteri Bottas has kept the brit on his "toes". Fortunately, Mercedes were able to tie down the British driver to fresh terms after his contract with the team expired at the end of last season, while Bottas stays on as well.

Mercedes recently unveiled their new car, the Mercedes-AMG F1 W12 E Performance which they hope will help them maintain their control of the F1 driver's championship and Constructors title for the new season.

However, preseason testing of the new car did unfortunately not go as planned as the 2020 F1 championed as involved in at least two spins from the three days of testing which somehow highlighted a problem with the rear controls of the car. This was a similar problem experienced by the Reb Bull team during last years testing and was one problem that affected the team throughout that season.

Hopefully, Mercedes will fix these issues and will come out strong when the season kicks off in Bahrain. See the highlights of the Mercedes Benz team and car during the First Practice for the Bahrain GP below,

The Mercedes-AMG F1 W12 E Performance

The Mercedes-AMG -F1 Team in action

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Other teams and their Cars

Haas F1

Haas F1 Team will have Mick Schumacher, son of Formula 1 Legend Micheal Schumacher race for them this term. Mick only recently moved up from Formula 2 to the elite racing F1. He will be joined by Nikita Mazepin in the driver's team. See some photos of the Haas F1 team and the new 2021 car nicknamed the VF21.

The VF21 in all her Glory

The Haas F1 team in action at the Bahrain Free Practice

Mclaren 

The Mclaren drivers team will be led by Daniel Ricciardo who recently left Alpine racing to join Mclaren. He will be joined by Lando Norris who will also be spinning off in the new F1 car, the MCL35M. See photos of the MCL35M and Mclaren drivers below.

The MCL35M

Meet the Mclaren 2021 F1 drivers

The MCL35M in all its glory

Aston Martin

The British F1 team will have veteran F1 driver Sebastian Vettel along with Lance Stroll man the new car (The AMR21) for the new season.

The AMR21

The 2021 Aston Martin F1 car the AMR21

 

Ferrari

Ferrari will have Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz race for them this season in their new car the SF21. Carlos joins the team as a new member and will try along with Leclerc to score more points and even take a few podiums this season. The hope is that the new car will perform a lot better at corners this season and that could even see Ferrari mount an unlikely challenge for the drivers and constructors title this term.

See the Ferrari drivers led by Charles Leclerc 2021

See the SF21, Ferrari's Challenger for the 2021 season

So those are the cars and the drivers for Elite F1 teams that will be competing for the crown this year. Expect a sweaty dog fight between the Mercedes F1 team and the Reb Bull team for who goes home with the constructor's title and the driver's championship. Reb Bull seem led on the track by Max Verstappen which has one of the best cars so far while Mercedes have a team with a lot of championship experience and drivers Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas who are also really hungry for success. 

The battle might go down between these two teams but maybe Mercedes might just cling it if they fix the issues noticed during the preseason testing. So let the speed demons out and let's get Loud!!!

In the meanwhile, everything should be done to prevent car racing accidents to ensure the safety for both the drivers and the cars.

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