MOTORSPORT: Giant highs and lows in 2021

After a hectic year of motorsport, Oscar Piastri is one step away from joining Daniel Ricciardo in Formula 1, while another Aussie Molly Taylor is a world champion in Extreme E and likely to be a star of the Dakar Rally in 2022 and beyond.

Then there is Michael Masi, the Race Director of F1 and the person most likely to be sacrificed to Mercedes-AMG over the controversial finish to the grand prix season in Abu Dhabi.

At home, the Repco Supercars Championship went again to a Kiwi, Shane van Gisbergen, after one of the most one-sided contests in recent years.

His predecessor Scott McLaughlin made a successful graduation to IndyCar single-seater racing in the USA with a podium place in his first season and Rookie of the Year honours at the Indianapolis 500.

On two wheels, not four, youngster Remy Gardner joined his father Wayne as a world champion when he claimed the Moto2 world title before graduating to MotoGP as a KTM factory rider in season ’22. 

But the COVID pandemic meant there were no Australian championships in rallying or off-road racing, and even a truncated Toyota 86 series failed to declare a title winner despite the near-total domination by youngster Zach Bates.

The world title went down to the last lap of the last race, and that was just the start of the controversy as Max Verstappen snatched the crown from seven-times champion Lewis Hamilton.

The season was one of the most intense and toxic in recent memory as Mad Max went all-out for every corner, Hamilton tried to play a conservative hand and their respective teams – Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG – battled for any and every advantage.

Verstappen and Hamilton collided on many occasions, sometimes only a bump but also a full-on whack at the British Grand Prix that set the young Dutchman to hospital and then an up-and-over impact at the Italian Grand Prix that left the Red Bull sitting on top of the Mercedes.

Did the right driver win? It depends on your perspective, but it’s good for Formula 1 to have a new champion, as well as a youngster from the new wave of kids washing into grand prix racing.

It’s easy to re-visit and re-hash the final showdown in Abu Dhabi and the last-lap incident which has triggered an FIA inquiry, but it was just the final act in a year-long drama.

Verstappen won the most races after starting the year with the faster car, but Mercedes mounted a massive comeback that drew more speed from its car and allowed Hamilton to fight until the end. And beyond, as he and Benz team boss Toto Wolff boycotted the world title presentation.

At the finish, there was no denying Verstappen’s emotion or the importance of his – first of many? – championship.

“I was crying on the end lap, there's no hiding about it. It was just insane, the whole lap. I couldn't believe it. Just the stress of the whole season, the whole battle,” says Verstappen.

“To become world champion was, of course, my final goal in Formula 1. I'm very happy that it happened and… everything else that happens now is just a bonus.”

The focus on the title fight obscured many other sidebars to the F1 season, including Daniel Ricciardo’s tough time at McLaren. He switched from Renault in the hope of becoming a world title contender but was generally out-raced by his teammate Lando Norris.

Ricciardo won at Monza in Italy, with Norris a frustrated runner-up, but he struggled to adapt to the challenges of the McLaren and needs to move quickly in season 2022 to re-establish himself as the top dog in the team and a regular winner.

Fernando Alonso proved he is still a racer’s racer with brilliant performances for Renault, George Russell won himself a promotion from Williams to Mercedes as Valtteri Bottas – long-time wingman but never a threat to Hamilton – downgraded to Alfa Romeo.

The biggest development in 2021 was the unveiling of the all-new F1 cars that will race from the start of next year.

They have been stripped of their jet-fighter aerodynamics to promote closer racing and easier overtaking, although they will continue – until 2026 – with the complicated turbo-hybrid powertrains which led to far too many driver penalties as teams were forced to renew components.

The 2022 season will also stretch to a record 23 races, including another US grand prix in Miami as F1 becomes hugely popular off the back of the inside view provided by the Drive To Survive series on Netflix.

The Australian Grand Prix returns to Albert Park in the new year, but on April 10 as the third round of the series to prevent potential Covid-19 travel restrictions.

Oscar Piastri was not expected to win his third straight FIA driving championship.

But he did it and he did it with speed and style, joining only two previous drivers – F1 stand-outs Charles Leclerc of Ferrari and new Mercedes-AMG signing George Russell – to have also won back-to-back crowns in FIA Formula 3 and Formula 2.

Piastri lifted to a new level in F2 as he won more races than anyone else, took more pole positions than anyone else, and cemented his place – and his future – with the Alpine F1 Academy.

He was also chosen as the FIA Rookie of the Year, an award for ’the most exciting talent in an FIA championship’.

The 20-year-old now faces a year as the Reserve Driver at Alpine, hoping that Fernando Alonso or Esteban Ocon need to step down for a race or concede him a Friday practice session.

One extra year into the future, in 2023, he needs Alonso to retire from F1 – again – to jump onto the grid alongside Ricciardo.

“I have certainly done everything in my power to present my case for an F1 race seat,” says Piastri.

“I though results could barge my way into an F1 race seat somewhere, clearly that has not worked out. Of course it is a bit disappointing I won’t be making the jump directly and I really, really hope that I’m on the grid in 2023.”

While Piastri is set, Jack Doohan is also hoping to advance to F1 after a couple of tough single-seater years in Europe.

The son of MotoGP legend Mick Doohan had a dreadful first year in FIA F3 with the underwhelming HWA team, but rebounded with second for the series in 2021 and then made an impressive first impression in F2 at the season finale.

He qualified on the front row alongside Piastri and, although he crashed while defending on the wrong tyres, he is looking more and more solid each year.

Away from Europe, Scott McLaughlin made a big impact in IndyCar as veteran Aussie Will Power, a series champion and Indy 500 winner, struggled in one of the most competitive seasons on record.

Rarely has a driver dominated the way Shane van Gisbergen did over the past season.

He smashed any opposition with an unbroken series of six wins at the start of the Repco Supercars Championship and not even a broken collarbone could stop him crushing the other contenders through to the grand final at the delayed Bathurst 1000 in December.

The turning point was at Sandown when he smashed his Red Bull Ampol Commodore across the high kerbs to check his fitness and realised he could easily cope with the pain.

“Nobody expected that weekend to go that way. I left that weekend thinking the only person that would beat me that year was me,” says van Gisbergen.

Three wins at Sandown left the rest of the pack trailing, including his teammate Jamie Whincup who eventually finished second in the series in his final year as a full-time racer in the Supercars main game.

Other hopefuls came and went, and it was great to see youngster Will Brown bag his first win for Erebus Motorsport, but no-one was able to rattle van Gisbergen until Chaz Mostert used a super-quick Commodore – and speedy veteran co-driver Lee Holdsworth – to win the Bathurst 1000 in December.

Holdsworth was so impressive he was quickly promoted back to a full-time seat for 2022 at Grove Racing, newly re-named after a buy-out of what had been Kelly Racing, as cashed-up team owner Stephen Grove looks to lift his squad into the top ranks.

The Bulls top that list, and have the coveted #1 garage in pitlane for the new year, although Dick Johnson Racing is likely to be a stronger challenger after a tough rebuilding year in which Anton De Pasquale was quick but not experienced enough and Will Davison was experienced but not quick enough.

Season 2022 was intended to see the arrival of all-new Gen3 cars in Supercars, the Chevrolet Camaro and Ford Mustang, and although the technical change has been delayed until 2023 there is a giant upheaval coming for the new year.

The series was sold to a new ownership group, called RACE, which is promising more active promotion and development after too many years as an investment property for Archer Capital.

Team owners will have no say in future, after a $1 million payday for each of their racing contracts, which should shift the focus back to the drivers and more entertainment for fans.

Sebastian Ogier did it again, claiming his eighth world title, after a tough COVID-hit year in the World Rally Championship.

The French veteran was a cut above the other contenders in a Toyota Yaris that was the quickest car of the season, edging out his teammate Elfyn Evans in the final standings.

Molly Taylor made a series of cameos for the M-Sport team which competes at the top level, driving a class contender, as she completely revitalised her year.

When she won the Extreme E crown for electric-powered off-road racers, driving for former F1 champion Nico Rosberg alongside rallycross star Johan Kristofferson, she proved she is capable of having a career at the top level and was quickly snapped up to drive a buggy in the Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia in January.

In Australia, Harry Bates was again the fastest driver at national championship level but has to wait until 2022 to get a full campaign in his new Toyota Yaris.

There is also a total technical overhaul coming in the World Rally Championship, as the newly-named Rally1 cars – from Toyota, Hyundai and Ford – move to radical new bodywork and turbo-hybrid power in a move which should see the fastest cars in the history of rallying.