Some will be pleased to see the back of 2021 yet it may turn out that we eventually look back on it as a special one in motorsport history. We have had so many cancellations and postponements in a changing Covid world, its a credit for the many race series organisers, team managers, hosting circuits, officials, volunteers and drivers both domestically and internationally that we have been able to complete many of the annual championships and events.
So here is five of the best to come out of 2021……
Having Max Verstappen as the 2021 Formula One championship winning driver has to be the best thing for the category. An epic fight between two truly great drivers has commentators agreeing that it has been one of the best seasons ever. It was a cruel twist of fate for rival Lewis Hamilton that enabled Verstappen to take both the victory and title in Saudi Arabia in a race that the former was clearly going to win. It raises many questions and there is one that I just can’t stop thinking about….’What would have Christian Horner and Verstappen have said, if he had lost….?’ Well, it was always going to be controversial and it certainly delivered in spades. Bring on 2022 and bring on the next Netflix series of Drive to Survive!
It’s almost as though winning the 2021 Repco Supercars Championship title for the second time was a bit of a walk-in-the-park for Kiwi Shane van Gisbergen. He is clearly head and shoulders better than the rest on the grid and while challenges came and went, it was his consistency in setting fastest qualifying laps and either winning or finishing on the podium that put him as odds on favourite for the title very early in the season. I don’t doubt that it may well be something similar in 2022 or at least until the new Gen3 car hits the tracks and all the teams are sent scrambling to find the best new setups.
The only hiccup for van Gisbergen could be in the new Triple Eight Race Engineering team ownership and with former team mate Jamie Whincup taking over the running of the organisation from Roland Dane. Gone are Paul Dumbrell and Tim Miles who have sold their stake in the team along with Roland Dane. Tony Quinn now owns 40% along with Jess Dane and Whincup, each with 30%.
The question that I have hanging from the 2021 season is how can Walkinshaw Andretti United Racing produce such a Bathurst winning rocket ship for Chaz Mostert at the final round of the season, the Repco Bathurst 1000, and not give him that kind of car for every round of the championship?
The third best of 2021 would have to go to Emma Gilmour in being named (and signed) as the first female driver for McLaren Racing to compete in the McLaren Extreme E team in 2022. This is not a marketing exercise as some F1 teams have done in the past. Rather, she has earned this from some hard graft both in domestic and international competition. While at home in the NZ Rally Championship her Suzuki AP4 car may have been less than reliable, Gilmour has put up some pretty impressive Special Stage times often finishing in the top three. It is hard to get a gauge on the two Extreme E events that she drove in this year, yet she must have done something to impress Zak Brown. Only just now back in NZ, she will have to start thinking about packing her bags once again in early February with the first 2022 Extreme E round taking place in Saudi Arabia 19-20 February. Then, who knows if and when she will be able to return home with the current MIQ ‘status’ in NZ.
The announcement that Rally New Zealand will be included in the 2022 World Rally Championship was quite a pleasant surprise. All credit to the hard-working team behind the scenes that have secured the WRC round.
It always helps if you have your feet under the table so the election of MotorSport NZ President Wayne Christie onto the FIA World Motor Sport Council is to be applauded. We may not know the real significance of this for sometime but to have a place at the table must bring some influence and focus on NZ’s involvement in global motorsport and let’s hope it helps to cement Rally NZ as a round of future WRC calendars’.
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