🇧🇭 Formula 1 2021: R1 - Bahrain qualifying and comparing it to 2020

The Formula One season starts in Bahrain as COVID means the traditional season-opener of Australia moves to later in the year as part of the Southern Hemisphere's summer.

Photo by Milan Csizmadia on UnsplashBut by moving the first race of the year to Sakhir, we can observe a few things. As they raced there in November 2020, we've only had four months in between races on the Grand Prix layout. This means we can make comparisons between the 2020 cars and the 2021 editions. There has been significant driver movement, with three rookies, one return and several moves, but we're able to compare qualifying times between cars and drivers. Qualifying is when the cars are on the limit. Low fuel, fresh tyres and one lap to get as high a grid position as possible. The other variable is the weather. But being a forecaster in Bahrain must be a pretty decent gig at the best of times. In 2020, the November weather was "partly cloudy and a bit unsetted." Temperatures were 25c with a low chance of rain. 

First of all, some housekeeping. Drivers are compared with the driver they replaced, so 2021 Vettel is being compared with 2020 Perez, Schumacher/Magnussen and Mazepin/Grosjean, Tsunoda/Kyvat, 21 Perez/20 Albon, Alonso/20 Ricciardo, 21 Ricciardo/20 Sainz and 21 Sainz/20 Vettel. 

I've also only used the official time from F1 for the highest qualifying session each driver made it to. So what can we learn from that? Firstly, yes, everyone was slower this season. The tyres are heavier, limited development time and the weather might have caused the time differences. 

But the big winner is Ferrari, with Charles Leclerc being 0.5 seconds slower than his time last season. Only Daniel Ricciardo, being compared with 2020 Carlos Sainz, is less than a second slower around the lap this year. 

Yuki Tsunoda, in his first F1 qualifying session, showed some potential in Q1 before falling off the cliff in Q2 and Vettel can consider himself super unlucky, getting hit with yellow flags at the end of Q1. There were also some shocks in Q2 with Ferrari's Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc leading the timing screens, and Sergio Perez, trying to get through on medium tyres, not quite getting there. 

The Mexican driver has it all to do, ending up 11th, and 2.39 seconds slower than Albon did in 2020. He missed out by hundredths of a second on getting into Q3, but with it, there's a chance he has compromised his - and his team's - weekend, leaving Verstappen to fight off the Mercedes on his own. 

Same as it ever was. 

But the difference between 2020 and 2021 is that the race feels wide open. The usual suspects are in a great position, but Ferrari could be on the way back, Pierre Gasly has continued his great form, and McLaren's consistency has also remained early in the season. There are also the stalking horses of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll all the way back in row five. 

Formula 1 is back, and although a lot of it looks familiar, it's definitely different.