Formula 1: The turning point needs to happen — and now

Red Bull may have the pace to knock Mercedes off their Formula 1 throne, but they need to start capitalizing on it before letting any more opportunities slip away.

I was one of the many people who thought coming into the 2021 Formula 1 season that Mercedes’ role as the “underdog” was all just a front, as it usually is, and that their so-called “lack of pace”, “diva” car, etc., were nothing more than the usual sandbagging ahead of another dominant season.

I was happy to admit after the first race weekend at Bahrain International Circuit that I was wrong and that it does appear that we will have a championship battle on our hands throughout the 2021 season between Mercedes and Red Bull.

But I was equally happy to admit that, as expected, Mercedes showed yet again that they were much better than advertised, and things were nowhere near as they might have seemed to those who actually bought into the whole “underdog” rubbish.

For instance, ahead of the season, Lewis Hamilton wasn’t even willing to acknowledge that Mercedes could beat McLaren…

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So to some it was a surprise that Red Bull had the edge throughout the entire season-opening race weekend, specifically with Max Verstappen behind the wheel of the Honda-powered RB16B, just as they did in preseason testing.

The 23-year-old Dutchman dominated practice and took the pole position by a decent gap over the Silver Arrows. Despite Mercedes having shown well when it came to longer runs as compared to single-lap runs for the pole position, Verstappen was the driver to beat during the 56-lap Bahrain Grand Prix around the 15-turn, 3.363-mile (5.412-kilometer) road course in Sakhir, Bahrain as well.

So why, then, did Hamilton open up the season with a win, giving himself and Mercedes the upper hand in both championship battles to open up the year?

You didn’t really think Red Bull would win, did you?

You didn’t really buy any of the “underdog” hype, did you?

That’s the thing.

All of that was actually true. Red Bull were actually the better team, and quite comfortably as well.

Yet the Milton Keynes-based team still threw the race, something you cannot afford to do against the seven-time reigning world champions with a seven-time world champion behind the wheel of one of their two W12s. And to a point, it doesn’t matter how old his tires are…

Even if you had bought into the preseason hype about Mercedes struggling, you wouldn’t have been wrong — not even as Hamilton stood atop the podium, same old, same old, for what was a record 96th time.

Why? Because we know why Hamilton won the race, aside from the obvious reason that he delivered a masterful drive in the closing laps to hold off a clearly quicker Verstappen.

• Brilliant strategy from the Mercedes pit wall
• Terrible counter-strategy from the Red Bull pit wall — multiple times
• Track limits controversy 

You could also add that Nikita Mazepin was already out of contention and therefore couldn’t cause a collision with the leaders while being lapped. But we don’t want to be too technical here.

On the third point, we’re not just talking about Verstappen having to hand back the lead, either — we’re talking about the whole weekend and the farce that was track limits throughout it.

So what’s next?

We are one race into a record-breaking 23-race 2021 Formula 1 season, but we already need a turning point — and quickly — if Red Bull are going to dethrone the seven-time reigning world champions and prevent Hamilton tying a record with what would be his fifth straight world title and breaking a record with what would be his eighth world title overall.

Let’s face it. On paper, the Bahrain Grand Prix result was a fluke, and Mercedes and Red Bull both know it. They also both know that the latter should be at an advantage for at least the next two races on the schedule, the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari and the Portuguese Grand Prix at Algarve International Circuit.

Mercedes — Hamilton, specifically — won both races last season, and comfortably.

But based on what we know about 2021 so far, Red Bull should win both.

“Should” is a big six-letter word.

Again, races aren’t won on paper, as we saw in Bahrain, and if Red Bull don’t capitalize on this opportunity, not only are they giving Mercedes an even bigger cushion in a championship battle which they should not be controlling to begin with, but they are not at all making them pay during the time when they should be trailing.

Make no mistake about it; the Silver Arrows are currently playing catch-up. They are trailing from a speed and performance standpoint, even if the standings don’t show it, as strange as that may seem.

But does anybody really think they’re just going to sit back and accept that — that they’re going to count on good strategy, Hamilton hanging on on old tires and track limits controversies every week — to maybe win once in a while?

That’s the thing about playing catch-up: there’s an end goal. They know they are behind, and they are doing everything possible to change that. Any progress is huge.

And when you still manage to win while playing catch-up and making that progress, that’s extra huge.

So Red Bull can’t afford to lose a race for the foreseeable future if they want to have any chance at winning the title, because already, the standings don’t reflect where they are in relation to their chief rivals.

The second race of the 2021 season is scheduled to take place on Sunday, April 18 at Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari. The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix is set to be broadcast live on ESPN beginning at 9:00 a.m. ET.