Formula One: F1 needs a Hamilton-Verstappen battle, starting in Bahrain

F1 needs a battle royal between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. Photo / Don Kennedy

This weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix will herald what F1 management hopes will be the first of 23 races on the 2021 schedule.

Like most international sports, F1 will carry on despite the Covid pandemic that has changed the world in the last 12 months.

And the first race will not be a crowd-less event like most of the 17 grand prix contested in 2020 were. The Bahrain GP management has government approval to sell tickets to those already vaccinated against the coronavirus and those who have recovered from it.

At last year's race, held in November, only essential healthcare workers were invited, but this time the numbers attending could be relatively high.

The FIA will be hoping there are no problems in keeping personal in the F1 paddock and the drivers and their teams, safe. New F1 CEO, Stefano Domenicali, who has taken over from Chase Carey, has said he is not taking the opening event "for granted."

"The to-do list is quite long. The first thing, of course, is to start the season in Bahrain. It is not taken for granted," Domenicali said.

"In this situation, with Covid-19, we need to proceed with the evolution of the pandemic. It's great that with the protocol in place, it is possible to fly around the world and do the races. This is the first point. The second is that we must make sure we are looking into the future."

Domenicali is especially pleased that a name like Aston Martin is back in F1 to join iconic teams, like Williams.

"The mix between traditional teams and traditional brands, new brands, new OEM's (original equipment manufacturers) coming in, with this incredible number of drivers, will give us the excitement."

What the fans are expecting this weekend though, is a battle royal between Mercedes and Red Bull, or more particularly, F1's new knight, Mercedes world champion, Sir Lewis Hamilton, and the pretender to his F1 crown, Red Bull's Max Verstappen.

The latter set the fastest time in the three-day test in Bahrain two weeks ago, but the Dutchman is not convinced he has a faster car than the Mercedes.

"They are indeed fast," Verstappen told Dutch broadcaster, Ziggo Sports, referring to Mercedes.

"We could see what they were doing on the data. They drove their first lap with less power. Then they drove two quiet laps, followed by a second flying lap. In that, they won half a second on engine power."

"I expect we and Mercedes will be close to each other," he added. "Behind that it is difficult, but I think McLaren are the third team."

2009 world champion Jenson Button, says a title fight between Hamilton and Verstappen, arguably the two best drivers on the grid, is what F1 needs.

"Its exactly what we want-to have Lewis up against Max, they are both extraordinary drivers," Button says. "Teammates fighting for a championship is great but when its drivers from different teams, it's the best. It's exactly what F1 needs right now."

"It's really exciting. Max as always, is giving it his all, is at the top of his game and I think he will really take the fight to Lewis," Button added.

While Mercedes had some reliability issues at the start of testing, and Hamilton also had a couple of uncharacteristic spins, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner still expects Mercedes to be the team to beat.

"It's a long season - 23 races is a massive season-but it's really important for us to get a good start and the Mercedes test was probably a bit scrappy by their standards, but they are such a quality team," Horner noted.

"It would be foolish to underestimate them and their ability to bounce back. We saw that a couple of years ago when they looked to be underperforming in Barcelona and then won comfortably in Australia."

One challenge for both Mercedes and Red Bull is how to best use their resources, given there is a budget cap imposed this year by the FIA, set at $145m, which is half what they are used to spending.

"It's always tough balancing resources and Mercedes are a big and quality team," Horner stated. "But we have the added challenge of the budget cap this year and the new regulations for 2022 and, of course, we are building our own power unit division here as well, so it's pretty busy."

"The fact it looks like we have a decent car to start the year with, we have proved our quality in being able to develop in the past and we need to focus on doing a good job again this year."

Horner has been critical of Mercedes' dominance for the last seven years, conveniently overlooking the fact that between 2010 and 2013, Red Bull dominated with Sebastian Vettel winning the championship for four consecutive years.

Of course, should Hamilton win again this year, it will be five consecutive titles for him, and eight overall.

Mercedes' boss Toto Wolff likes to wind Horner up, and is at it again before the start of the new season.

"Christian likes to rumble around a little bit, but I think we are doing it a bit different," Wolff remarked. "We concentrate on ourselves. We don't look too much left or too much right. We do our talking on the track."

Speaking of Vettel, he had a disappointing test with his new team, Aston Martin, and former world champion Damon Hill, is concerned that the lack of motivation demonstrated by Vettel in his last season with Ferrari, may still be prevalent.

"I think Vettel was destabilised at Ferrari. I think there were political aspects that undermined his confidence and that ended up affecting his driving," Hill told Sky Sports F1.

"I hope he has a chance to regain his self-confidence. Sometimes I look at him and I think he doesn't look motivated and confident and that's a bit worrying."

Vettel, along with Hamilton and the two veterans, 40-year old Kimi Raikkonen and 39-year-old Fernando Alonso, are the big names and all former world champions, still in the sport.

In Alonso's case, he is returning after an absence of two years. Michael Schumacher was away from the sport for three years, before making a largely unsuccessful return for two years with the Mercedes team. His teammate there was Nico Rosberg, who retired in 2016 as a world champion.

Schumachers' son, Mick, the reigning F2 champion, will make his F1 debut in Bahrain with the Haas team.

In last year's race, Romain Grosjean had a death-defying crash, his Haas car punching through the Armco barrier and bursting into flames.

Grosjean miraculously escaped from the fiery crash with burns to his hands, incurred in gripping the red-hot halo device as he hoisted himself out of the fireball.

Rosberg says it will not be easy for Mick because of the success his father enjoyed.

"It's not easy to be the 'son of'", Nico says with some authority, given his father Keke was the 1982 world champion.

"And with Mick its again 10 times more difficult because Michael's days weren't that long ago, and he was even more successful. The media attention will be great, initially probably even greater than that of Lewis Hamilton. I hope Mick can put that aside and concentrate well on his job-otherwise it takes away a lot of the fun."

Ralf Schumacher, Michael's brother, who won six grand prix, has warned his nephew to be wary of his Russian teammate, Nikita Mazepin, who has backing from his billionaire father.

"I still say Mazepin, along with the great support from his father, also as a certain amount of talent and very good preparation." Ralf says. "He is anything but easy to iron out in the team."

It is expected that the two Haas drivers could well be fighting for last place, based on the Bahrain test, but nonetheless, as Nico Rosberg says, there will be plenty of media interest in Mick Schumacher's F1 debut.

But the majority of fans will, as Button suggests, relish a Hamilton-Verstappen battle if it happens, and it would be even better if their respective teammates Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez can also join in that battle.

And maybe the McLaren duo of Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris, might not be too far behind, although Norris insists this year's McLaren is "not loads better, just that small step forward."

We will all be wiser after Sunday's race during when the talking stops and the action begins.