F1 Talk: Bahrain bonanza to host Hamilton’s victory lap

Lewis Hamilton heads to Bahrain as a seven-times Formula 1 World Champion as talk intensifies over whether he will be given a knighthood in the 2021 New Years’ Honours list.

As reported by The Sun last weekend, Hamilton’s seventh F1 title at the 2020 Turkish GP will now mean that Britain’s most successful F1 driver will be awarded a knighthood. He will join Sir Jackie Stewart, Sir Stirling Moss and Sir Jack Brabham after it was announced that Prime Minister Boris Johnson will nominate him to the Queen.

With victory at Istanbul Park, Hamilton has now won ten of the fourteen races this year and with three races to go there is no reason why he cannot match Michael Schumacher’s tally for a single season at 13 wins despite the shortened calendar.

Hamilton will be favourite once again at the Bahrain GP, but it is also the venue where his team-mate Valtteri Bottas took his maiden pole position back in 2017 and he has finished on the podium in each of the three seasons since he joined Mercedes.

Red Bull Racing are approaching decision time over the future of Alexander Albon, and while his performance at Istanbul Park was below expectations, there seems to have been a move within the team which suggests that they will retain the Thai-British driver for 2021.

This is despite the fact that Albon is currently ninth in the standings on 70 points compared to his team-mate Max Verstappen who is third on 170 points. Racing Point driver Sergio Perez finds himself fourth on 100 points despite missing one race after contracting coronavirus. The Mexican scored his first podium of the season in Turkey and is currently without a drive with Sebastian Vettel taking his place at the soon-to-be Aston Martin outfit for next year.

Meanwhile, Red Bull will intend to put the last race behind them as in a race Max Verstappen could have won, Red Bull finished sixth and seventh scrapping in the midpack after both drivers had costly spins which took them out of contention for the top positions.

In the fight for third, Perez’s first podium of the year has seen Racing Point pull ahead of McLaren by five points with Renault a further 13 points further behind.

Racing Point were also the first non-Mercedes, Ferrari or Red Bull pole position since the 2012 Brazilian GP courtesy of Lance Stroll’s fantastic superb qualifying performance at Istanbul.

McLaren’s efforts to stay in the fight were aided by Carlos Sainz Jr finishing a strong fifth while Lando Norris came home in eighth position, one ahead of Racing Point’s Stroll.

Renault had a disastrous weekend in Turkey as Daniel Ricciardo struggled to tenth and his team-mate Esteban Ocon followed him home in P11 in a weekend which saw both of their biggest rivals get at least one car inside the top five.

The results in Turkey now mean that Ferrari are somewhat in the fight with the Scuderia only six points off the back of Renault with three races left despite Charles Leclerc’s mistake which cost him a podium finish from twelfth on the grid.

AlphaTauri also lost out after a painful weekend in Turkey. Daniil Kvyat managed to get the better of Pierre Gasly, but the pair came home twelfth and thirteenth on a weekend of pain after the plucky junior Italian squad has had so much success this season.

Alfa Romeo may have missed out on more points in Turkey, but with eight points to their name this season, and a small chance of either Haas or Williams scoring points in either of the remaining three races, the Ferrari junior outfit are hopeful to secure eighth in the championship and the prize money that comes with it.

Haas are still to announce their driver line-up, but it is likely that Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin will be announced after the conclusion of the Formula 2 season. There are currently two rounds and four races of F2 action left in the two iterations of Bahrain that F1 will visit over the next two weeks.

Williams are still yet to score a point this season and despite the fact that they have made sizable gains this year, the lack of any tangible results to their name will be painful to see with just three races to correct that statistic.

As the F1 paddock heads to Bahrain, Hamilton is to embark on yet another victory lap after the British driver claimed a record-equalling seventh F1 World Championship at Istanbul Park. But with plenty of fire in him and a new Mercedes contract pending, can anyone truly stop him?