F1 2021: Driver line-up, launch and test dates

The 2021 Formula 1 season is drawing near, with just a month until the cars hit the track for the first time at pre-season testing.

That test, which will last just three days, will be held in Bahrain on March 12-14 (Friday-Sunday). Testing had previously been scheduled to take place at the traditional venue of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, but because of the pandemic it has been relocated to Bahrain.

The Middle Eastern island will also play host to the opening race of the season after the Australian Grand Prix was postponed to later in the season.

But before that, we’ve got the traditional launch season which sees the teams pull the covers off of their “new” cars. This year is a little different in that the cars will largely look identical to those of 2020. The FIA ruled last year that in order to save costs, teams must carryover much of their car to 2021, although there are still some changes you can look out for.

Of course we’ll see livery tweaks and new sponsors, and that’ll be the most visual change, but there are some technical tweaks such as a diagonal cut in the floor, as well as changes to the brake ducts and rear-diffuser. Teams can also tweak their aerodynamics.

So there’s limited car changes, but plenty of other changes! Practice sessions have been cut to 60 minutes. Racing Point is now Aston Martin and Renault becomes Alpine. Fernando Alonso returns, Daniel Ricciardo moves to McLaren, Carlos Sainz to Ferrari and there’s new rookies on the grid too!

Here are the key dates and confirmed grid for the 2021 Formula 1 season.

2021 Formula 1 Launch Dates

Team	Car	Date
McLaren	MCL35M	February 15
AlphaTauri	AT02	February 19
Alfa Romeo	C41	February 22
Red Bull	RB16B	February 23
Ferrari	Team Launch	February 26 (Team)
Mercedes	W12	March 2
Alpine	A521	March 2
Aston Martin	AMR21	March 3
Haas	VF-21	March 4 (Livery)
Williams	FW43B	March 5
Ferrari	SF21	March 10 (Car)

2021 Driver Line-up

Team	Engine	Drivers	Driver No.	Nationality
Mercedes	Mercedes	Lewis Hamilton Valtteri Bottas	44 77	British Finnish
Red Bull	Honda	Max Verstappen Sergio Perez	33 11	Dutch Mexican
McLaren	Mercedes	Daniel Ricciardo Lando Norris	3 4	Australian British
Aston Martin	Mercedes	Sebastian Vettel Lance Stroll	5 18	German Canadian
Alpine	Renault	Fernando Alonso Esteban Ocon	14 31	Spanish French
Ferrari	Ferrari	Charles Leclerc Carlos Sainz	16 55	Monegasque Spanish
Alpha Tauri	Honda	Pierre Gasly Yuki Tsunoda	10 22	French Japanese
Alfa Romeo	Ferrari	Kimi Raikkonen Antonio Giovinazzi	7 99	Finnish Italian
Haas	Ferrari	Mick Schumacher Nikita Mazepin	47 9	German Russian
Williams	Mercedes	George Russell Nicholas Latifi	63 6	British Canadian

2021 Formula 1 Calendar

#		Event	Location	Date
-		Pre-Season Test	Bahrain	12-14 March
1		Bahrain GP	Sakhir	28 March
2		Emilia Romagna GP	Imola	18 April
3	TBC	TBC	TBC	25 April
4		Spanish GP	Barcelona	9 May
5		Monaco GP	Monte Carlo	23 May
6		Azerbaijan GP	Baku	6 June
7		Canadian GP	Montreal	13 June
8		French GP	Paul Ricard	27 June
9		Austrian GP	Spielberg	4 July
10		British GP	Silverstone	18 July
11		Hungarian GP	Budapest	1 August
12		Belgian GP	Spa-Francorchamps	29 August
13		Dutch GP	Zandvoort	5 September
14		Italian GP	Monza	12 September
15		Russian GP	Sochi	26 September
16		Singapore GP	Singapore	3 October
17		Japanese GP	Suzuka	10 October
18		United States GP	Austin	24 October
19		Mexican GP	Mexico City	31 October
20		Brazilian GP	Sao Paulo	14 November
21		Australian GP	Melbourne	21 March
22		Saudi Arabia GP	Jeddah	28 November
23		Abu Dhabi GP	Yas Marina	5 December
-		Chinese GP	Shanghai	Postponed