“The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will go down as a day of infamy in F1’s recent history”

IMAGES OF THE YEAR 2021

From F1 to the Indy 500 and WEC to WRC, it was a golden year of motor racing, captured by the world’s best photographers

Hall of Fame 2021: the results are in

Motor Sport readers have voted in their thousands and we can now reveal the five motor racing figureheads you have chosen to enter our Hall of Fame. This year’s shortlist brought a tough test for voters, with every nominee excelling in their respective fields, all with achievements that most racers can only dream of. As usual, we were looking for more than just race victories and championships – and once again our readers have assiduously opted for individuals whose mark goes beyond results sheets. These are people who have shaped their sport as icons of their generation. Here are the 2021 Hall of Fame inductees

“Formula 1 in 2021 was the equivalent of 1982 and 2006 rolled into one”

Right in the middle of facing unprecedented challenges

TRACKSIDE VIEW

The Middle East played host to the final stages of the season with Hamilton reeling in Verstappen before Abu Dhabi’s ‘Decider in the Desert’. And that’s just the start

All’s not always fair in love and war...

Three races, but it all came down to one, very controversial, final lap that put the title on a plate for Verstappen, says Mark Hughes

“This is crazy and insane”

Safe to say McLaren’s promising Mexican enjoyed his maiden F1 test

Word on the beat

Sauber squabbles, Todt to Ferrari, engine updates

Good month, bad month

Charting the ups and downs of the F1 circus

Porsches for courses

Extraordinary tales from the Motor Sport digital archive

Bending over backwards

Regulators strive to stiffen the rules, but team designers keep trying to search out gaps

“We do this to win races in the most honourable way, and that’s not how it ’s turned out”

GETTY IMAGES My verdict on the last-lap shootout

“There’s no gain without pain, which is especially true in motorcycle racing”

Marc Márquez has always pushed the risk

“Victory in the 2000 Nürburgring 1000Kms gave Panoz stature”

Ever since the ‘rear-engined revolution’ – which Cooper

“M’s next bespoke car is an enormous SUV, and the least attractive I have seen”

I n 2022 BMW celebrates the 50th anniversary

Penalties a positive for Max

Grid adjustments played their part in Qatar – to Verstappen’s advantage, says Mark Hughes

PERFECTLY FRANK

Sir Frank Williams, who died in November aged 79, was a chief protagonist in the Formula 1 stor y, building a racing team alongside engineer Patrick Head that would take nine constructors’ and seven drivers’ titles. As Nigel Roebuck recounts, Frank’s was a turbocharged career, soured by tragedy, yet he never lost sight of the goal – the need to win

Merc should go the extra mile

The clatter of a cold diesel brings a smile to Andrew Frankel but does the new, bulkier C-Class saloon live up to the noise?

The case for electric

Taycan GTS is the pinnacle of Porsche’s best-selling EV

And this isn’t bad, either...

Tesla steps into the SUV market with the Model 3-esque Y

Triple whammy

TAG Heuer celebrates the 30th anniversary of Ayrton Senna’s third and final Formula 1 crown with a special edition timepiece

A gentleman on and off the track

A first biography for Mike Spence reveals a decent driver with talent but lacking the killer instinct, says Gordon Cruickshank

Accessories all areas

Light-hearted and packed with products, the story of one man’s experiences as a motoring-extras salesman is a riveting read

Dario Franchitti

The four-time IndyCar champion and three-time Indy 500 winner on his American adventure, that crash in Houston and a return to the track – “I’m a racer, always have been”

MY Greatest RIVAL

RICHARD ATTWOOD ON PETER ARUNDELL

Flashback...

For two decades Maurice Hamilton reported from the F1 paddock with pen, notebook and Canon Sure Shot camera. This month we are in the Alps in 1983 to view preparations for the Monte-Carlo Rally with a familiar-looking coach driver

LETTERS

Iam very glad that controversy now rages over

F1 FINALE REACTION

I CAN NO LONGER STOMACH GP RACING, BECAUSE

DOWN TO THE WIRE

There hasn’t been a Formula 1 year like it since the 1970s, and even then that title fight could barely hold a candle to the dramatic twists and turns that 2021 treated us to. It had the lot: rivalry, heartbreak and brutal racing – and it held us spellbound. Mark Hughes looks back at a classic

2021 DRIVER TOP 10

Mark Hughes has his say on the season’s best performers, although we’ve had to allow him some extra decimal points to help separate them

F1’s moment of shame

Max Verstappen is undoubtedly a worthy champion but the season finale should have been handled differently. Mark Hughes has his say on the Michael Masi mess

ELECTRIC RACING

While F1 grabbed the headlines, there were clashes, surprises and farewells in other disciplines

MOTOGP

Fans return to the stands as Ducati and a new generation of riders take over. Mat Oxley looks back at a year of change

NATIONAL RACING

Missed your foreign sojourns? There was still plenty to see in Blighty – and Simon Arron was probably there

WRC

Sébastien Ogier’s battle to the season’s end kept fans enthralled, says Anthony Peacock

SPORTS CARS

Boardroom discussions have been seismic, says Gary Watkins. Already, all eyes are on 2023

US RACING

F1 might be on the rise in the US but IndyCar and NASCAR have enjoyed superb seasons, reports Preston Lerner

Mission Possible

Does this phenomenal-looking, electricpowered Porsche concept herald the arrival of a new breed of track cars? Andrew Frankel heads to California to experience the future

THE GREAT ESCAPE

When Romain Grosjean walked away from a Formula 1 horror crash in Bahrain in 2020, the motor racing world breathed a collective sigh of relief. That was his final F1 appearance and since then his career has seen a revival in the US – and even become fun. Damien Smith speaks to IndyCar’s rising talent about a fresh start and how he’s grown to accept his battle scars

JUMP START

There’s a revolution in the World Rally Championship, with 2022 welcoming the electric-assisted 500bhp Rally1 era. David Evans directs us through the changes and reveals what we can expect from this new generation of cars

An old head on young shoulders

Is Kalle Rovanperä the man to bring the title ‘home’?

True grit

Can classic rallying be carbon neutral? We follow the NET-HERO team at the gruelling RAC-inspired Roger Albert Clark Rally

Atwell’s finest

BUYING, SELLING, AUCTIONS, MEMORABILIA

Take a spin to Surrey for rare Spyder

● If you thought pigs in blankets were

Amber gambler

With a volcanic colour scheme, this McLaren Speedtail has been the short-term plaything of an American tycoon with a penchant for the lurid. Simon de Burton dons sunglasses to take a look

That’ll be the Lynx effect

Simon de Burton rounds up his saleroom finds including a thoroughbred D-type copy

Don’t forget your toothbrush

AUCTION FOCUS

THE EXPERT VIEW

The tether forecast

TEAM ORECA LE MANS BANNER

ANDY MEYRICK, SPORTS CAR ACE AND BRDC SUPERSTARS

Editor’s choice Model behaviour

Whether you’re hunting for gifts or buying for yourself, you’ll find a miscellany of track-friendly ideas at motorsportmagazine.com/shop

Manic minor

BUYING GUIDE

Supra, great, smashing

BUYING GUIDE

Road racing – as it was in the 1950s

Born in Northern Ireland, Neville Armstrong attended many Dundrod races in the era of Moss and Hawthorn. These are just some of his excellent photos

MAY 29, 1960 MONACO

GRAND PRIX PHOTO Driver briefing before the 1960