The 2020 Formula 1 season is has come to a close, and as ever the driver carrousel has lined up some remarkable changes for F1 2021.
The Codemasters game will faithfully reproduce the season, or in 2020's case what the season was meant to be. Which means some drivers are IN the game, and others are OUT.
So who will you be racing as next year? And who could you be able to sign on the Drivers Market?
Confirmed Formula 1 drivers for 2021
2020 has been a crazy year, and it has seen quite the movement of drivers as some veterans shuffle out of seats and some old and new faces arrive.
There are also a few seats still waiting to be confirmed.
Champions Mercedes return the same drivers for 2021, with seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas once again looking to bring home both titles.
Red Bull are going into 2021 with Max Verstappen as their star man, with the other seat going to Sergio Perez. The aim here is to challenge Mercedes more consistently. Alex Albon drops to reserve driver.
At Ferrari it will be Charles Leclerc teaming with new arrival Carlos Sainz, as the Scuderia start a new era.
McLaren will retain Lando Norris and are replacing the departing Sainz with Daniel Ricciardo.
Racing Point will be morphing into Aston Martin for 2021. They will retain Lance Stroll for 2021 and have added four-time champion Sebastian Vettel.
Renault will be called Alpine F1 for 2021. The keep Esteban Ocon and bring back Fernando Alonso, as the two-time champion returns to the sport.
AlphaTauri have race-winner Pierre Gasly in one car, but the other seat will go to rookie Yuki Tsunoda.
At Haas there will be two new drivers. F2 Champion Mick Schumacher will take one seat, while Nikita Mazepin will take the other.
Alfa Romeo surprised everyone by retaining both drivers into 2021. So Kimi Raikkonen will still be in the F1 2021 game, along with Antonio Giovinazzi.
Williams will also be keeping both drivers for 2021. George Russell, pending any remarkable Mercedes move, will still be looking to outperform the car. Nicolas Latifi will be back for a second year.
Team | Drivers |
---|---|
Mercedes | Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas |
Red Bull Racing | Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez |
McLaren | Lando Norris, Daniel Ricciardo |
Aston Martin | Lance Stroll, Sebastian Vettel |
Alpine F1 | Esteban Ocon, Fernando Alonso |
Ferrari | Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz |
AlphaTauri | Pierre Gasly, Yuki Tsunoda |
Alfa Romeo | Kimi Raikkonen, Antonio Giovinazzi |
Haas | Mick Schumacher, Nikita Mazepin |
Williams | George Russell, Nicolas Latifi |
F2 drivers in F1 2021
While unconfirmed for F1 2021, we fully expect the F2 series to continue in the game.
These spec-cars are great fun to drive and quite the challenge with less downforce than the F1 cars.
F1 2021 should arrive with the 2020 season of F2 drivers.
Teams | Drivers |
---|---|
Prema | Mick Schumacher, Robert Schwartzman |
UNI-Virtuosi | Callum Ilott, Guanyu Zhou |
Carlin | Yuki Tsunoda, Jehan Daruvala |
Hitech | Nikita Mazepin, Luca Ghiotto |
ART | Marcus Armstrong, Christian Lundgaard |
MP | Nobuharu Matsushita, Felipe Drugovich |
Charouz | Louis Deletraz, Pedro Piquet |
DAMS | Dan Ticktum, Sean Gelael |
Campos | Jack Aitken, Guilherme Samaia |
HWA | Guiliano Alesi, artem Markelov |
Trident | Roy Nissany, Marino Sato |
If Codemasters keep with the style they've had since adding Formula 2 cars to F1 2019, about half-way through the game's life they will release an update with the 2021 F2 drivers.
So far only a handful of drivers have been confirmed, but we know that 2020 F3 champion Oscar Piastri will be racing for Prema in 2021.
Driver Market expansion?
The 2020 season saw a lot more importance put on reserve drivers. With Lewis Hamilton missing a race due to a positive COVID-19 test, along with both of the Racing Point drivers, we saw more talk about drivers without a full-time seat than ever before.
Nico Hulkenberg got himself three races in Racing Point, while at Haas Pietro Fittipaldi filled in for the injured Romain Grosjean.
With names like Albon, Grosjean, and Magnussen missing out on seats for 2021, it would good for the expanded universe of F1 2021 if they were included in the Driver Market.
Codemasters could even go as far as including the likes of Stoffel Vandoorne and Callum Ilott, as well as some F3 drivers.