🇲🇨 Formula 1 2021: R5 — The enjoyment of a genuine multi-team battle

 There is a wider point coming on Formula 1, but first, let me take you back to 1994.

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Professional wrestling was kind of stale, and not the catchphrase-spewing, tightly produced near-monopoly it is in North America today. Two men would enter, one would win, repeat ad nauseum, throw in the word "brother" during an interview and collect a cheque. Sometimes, there were a couple of teams who would settle their scripted beef, hold up some belts and then leave.Outside the big two of WWE and what WCW would become, Extreme Championship Wrestling was a small, grungy counter-culture promotion that was headquartered in Philadelphia. Sometimes they had to clear out early because there was a bingo event to set up. The equivalent of Four Seasons Total Wrestling in today’s terms. But a lot of what wrestling fans take for granted started in ECW and one of its key personnel, Paul Heyman, is revered as a creative genius by fans today, where he still has an on-air role in WWE.So why am I telling you this? 27 years ago, ECW had the idea of putting three people in the ring at the same time. Instead of one-on-one, now you had infinite combinations of wrestlers that could fight each other. It was copied by bigger promotions and popularised as a Triple Threat match, but a three-way dance was seen as innovative at the time.Which brings me to Formula 1, and the Monaco Grand Prix.

Charles Leclerc put it on pole for Ferrari in the famous red team’s first since 2019. It was his home race and Ferrari had been competitive all weekend, despite playing down their chances, something Sky F1 commentator David Croft noticed when he talked about how the team were playing down their chances, but even before the start of qualifying, it was clear Ferrari could do something special at the most special of tracks.

In a race buildup dominated by McLaren’s gorgeous Gulf-inspired livery, Ferrari turned up like literal dark horses and – despite the sense of anticipation – well, then there was nothing. Something had gone wrong and while Ferrari had fixed the damage from the crash, Leclerc could not start the race, leaving pole position unfilled.It was Max Verstappen in P2 who inherited the lead, and led nearly every lap, although Valtteri Bottas ran him close, and it looked like Bottas could have carried the load for Mercedes before a disastrous pit stop took him out of the race. Ferrari benefitted from that and took their best result of the season with second place.

But the unique demands of Monaco aside, it was wonderfully refreshing to watch the traditional big two get challenged. Since the 2014 regulations were introduced, we've only had 10 different winners.Sergio Perez was the last non-Mercedes, non-Red Bull winner in 2020, and with Pierre Gasly winning what looked like the plot of a film in Italy last season, five different winners (25% of the grid) would make it appear as though the sport is in rude health. But look at the chart below.

We've had no more than four multi-time winners a season in the Hybrid era

From here, you can see who has won a race in the hybrid era. If you exclude drivers who won a single race in a season, you can see it has not really been an era where we’ve got a real three-way battle for the chequered flag.

It's even worse if you take out Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari, with those freak wins for Perez and Gasly being the only non-top-team winners. 

I get it though. It's a lot to ask. Where one team’s dominance might be challenged in 2021, asking for yet another contender might be a bit much, and Monaco is always a special case. But Leclerc's pole feels different to those unexpected wins last season. Maybe it’s because it’s Ferrari, and Formula 1 expects the Italian giants to be high up the grid.

Unfortunately, five races in, we have the two favourites winning races, and if there's anywhere an unfancied winner is going to get it, it would be Monaco. But maybe there are glimmers of hope. In the final classification today, eight of the teams were represented, with Williams and perennial backmarkers Haas out of contention, replaced by double points finishes for Red Bull and a much-needed double result for Aston Martin.Formula 1 is and always will be a sport about the front. Casual fans will always know the names of the people spraying the champagne and those teams and drivers will always get the most attention. Every media outlet that needs your clicks is guilty of that too, but there are so many storylines and graft that goes all the way down the grid, and while the battle of the big two is fun to watch each chess move, seeing someone else come in and plonk a new piece on the board is the real battle to watch.It's even more fun when the leaders mix it with those unusual pieces. Mercedes, who had a terrible day strategy wise, tried to get Lewis Hamilton past Pierre Gasly by undercutting him, but it didn't work, with Sebastian Vettel getting ahead too. They cleared the traffic so well for Sergio Perez that the Mexican benefitted from the stops and got ahead of the world champion too in free air, dropping Hamilton from a potential fourth to chase down Lando Norris to seventh and seething in his car.

Seeing those unexpected battles take place breathes new life into this sport. To go back to wrestling, WWE, back when it was half-decent, used to have a writer who kept a document to track the storylines and the battles in and out of the ring, to give it some continuity. When those storylines intersected and a midcarder was able to hang with the dominant stars, that's when it would add a new dimension and create intrigue. While the big names here are largely at the front, occasionally they have to drop down and mix it with underdogs. Unlike most of wrestling, this time, the midcarders got the better result and as the circus moves on to another street circuit, Azerbaijan presents new challenges.

It's another street track, with the fiendish turn eight looking to claim some victims and for Mercedes, another wrinkle. Going into round six, they've won more races, but they're not in the lead in Drivers' or Constructors' Championships.  

While this particular season isn't much of a wrestling match, so far, with Hamilton leading 3-2, but Verstappen taking the overall lead, it's one hell of a street fight. Like all good Street Fighters, it's at its best when someone hits Start and we welcome a new challenger.

                                                            PREVIOUSLY THIS SEASON:

📈 Formula 2, Formula 3 and W Series: Why F1's support races are great

🇪🇸 Round 4: Getting out-thought if not outfought

🇵🇹 Round 3: Portimão and the benefits of a rule change

🏁 The pros and cons of sprint qualifying

🇮🇹 Round 2: Max Verstappen and the Italian curse

🇧🇭 Round 1: Bahrain and comparing qualifying pace with 2020

🔮 Four odd predictions for F1 2021