COATES

The technical challenge threatening Mercedes’

domination of F1

It might seem rather dramatic to claim that Mercedes needs to fix its latest Formula 1 contender, particularly as the W12 won the one race it has started so far. But, as Mercedes and Alex Kalinauckas show in our cover article on page 18, this year’s campaign will be different. Mercedes has invariably had the upper hand on raw pace since the start of the turbo-hybrid era. Ferrari arguably had the edge in the early battles of 2018, but a combination of Sebastian Vettel errors and stellar performances by Lewis Hamilton put the (then) Silver Arrows ahead in the points even before Mercedes showed its development prowess. This is the first season since 2013 that Red Bull, with arguably a stronger team-lead-driver combo than Ferrari and Vettel ever were, has started the season not only on the pace but setting it.

Thanks to the restrictions on development – plus the new rules for 2022 that teams have to prepare for under a cost cap – it also means that Mercedes won’t find it easy to simply develop itself back to the front. In Hamilton’s words, it will have to be “smarter”. And the next opportunity to see that will come at Imola this weekend (p11).

Elsewhere, we look ahead to the continuing Penske-Ganassi battle in IndyCar (p28), assess one of the great grand prix duels that is often overlooked (p42), and Matt Kew reports from Rome’s dramatic Formula E double-header, where Mercedes also won (p48)…

Kevin Turner Chief Editor kevin.turner@autosport.com

NEXT WEEK 22 APRIL Emilia Romagna GP All the key moments from the second F1

contest of 2021

HAVE YOUR SAY, GET IN TOUCH

Autosport editorial Autosport Media UK Ltd

1 Eton Street Richmond

TW9 1AG

@ E-mail autosport@ autosport.com

Visit our website

autosport.com

Twitter twitter.com/ autosport

Facebook facebook.com/

autosport

Instagram instagram.com/

autosport

uTube ube.com/ ORTdotcom

YouTube youtube.com/ AUTOSPORTdotcom

COVER IMAGES Steve Etherington/ Motorsport Images

PIT & PADDOCK 4 Albon tests Ferrari as Paffett rejoins DTM 6 Hulkenberg named as Aston reserve 8 Marquez set for Portugal return 10 Farfus gets full Aston WEC season 11 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix preview 13 Opinion: Alex Kalinauckas 15 Opinion: James Newbold 17 Feedback: your letters

INSIGHT 18 What Mercedes needs to do next in F1 28 Can Penske turn the tables on Dixon? 32 Things to look out for in IndyCar 2021 36 The start of a new junior single-seater era 42 Was Caracciola better than Nuvolari?

RACE CENTRE 48 Vergne and Vandoorne victorious in FE 55 World of Sport: NASCAR Cup; Super GT

CLUB AUTOSPORT 62 Lotus set to build GT4 challenger 64 Club champs to race in Type R Trophy 66 A BTCC legend tries a Legend 67 Opinion: Stefan Mackley 68 National reports: Oulton Park; Donington Park

FINISHING STRAIGHT 70 What’s on this week 72 From the archive: 1933 Mannin Moar 74 In defence of: F1 rule changes

SUBSCRIPTION OFFER 16 Special deals for Autosport

VISIT AUTOSPORT.COM For other ways to read Britain’s best motorsport weekly

FREE WITH THIS ISSUE

NATIONAL SUPPLEMENT

We test McLaren’s 720S GT3, talk to a winner-turnedteam boss and assess Super Lap Scotland in the first National special of 2021.

15 APRIL 2021 AUTOSPORT.COM 3