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Even the best Formula 1 drivers have their bad days, so during a 2021 season of spectacular races and brilliant drives there were inevitably some low points too.
We’ve picked out the worst race for each of the 20 regular drivers and taken a look at the days when they didn’t get things right.
The selections are for a mixture of reasons. In some cases, the worst race is defined by a costly blunder or some telling misjudgements, but in others by a general lack of performance and consequently a result far worse than the machinery was capable of.
Races where third parties intervened to eliminate drivers or ruin their races are not considered.
LEWIS HAMILTON
15th, AZERBAIJAN GRAND PRIX
Hamilton’s nadir was defined by a single slip, accidentally engaging the ‘brake magic’ button on the rear-left side of his steering wheel at the standing restart in Baku.
That wound the brake bias to the front and resulted in a lock-up and trip up the escape road as he attempted to pass Sergio Perez for the lead.
It cost Hamilton at least 18 points, and very possibly 25 given he might well have passed Perez and won the race. An operational, rather than a driving, error but a big mistake nonetheless.
VALTTERI BOTTAS
12th, AZERBAIJAN GRAND PRIX
While not a weekend of big errors (the Hungary start was his biggest blunder) it was a bafflingly moribund outing from Bottas.
From struggling for grip in qualifying despite opting for a higher wing level than Hamilton to getting stuck in ninth place after jumping Fernando Alonso in the pits, his weekend was already going nowhere before it completely fell apart.
After the safety-car restart, he was shuffled back to 14th place, eventually finishing 12th only thanks to Hamilton’s mistake and Nicholas Latifi being shunted back on the restart grid.
MAX VERSTAPPEN
2nd, SAUDI ARABIAN GRAND PRIX
It’s a measure of how good Verstappen’s season was that a race he finished second in stands as probably his worst.
This is all down to the fact that, while his attacking approach generally paid off, on the Jeddah Corniche circuit it made life more difficult for him.
Admittedly, it would have been a very difficult race to win, but constantly drawing the attention of the stewards with his driving and then the way he attempted to give the position back to Hamilton with excessive braking ensured this was one of the few races where Verstappen didn’t maximise his chances.
SERGIO PEREZ
19th, BELGIAN GRAND PRIX
Perez managed the remarkable achievement of crashing and dropping from seventh to 19th as a result in a race that didn’t really happen.
He hit the wall in admittedly difficult conditions at Les Combes on a reconnaissance lap. The delay to the ‘start’ allowed his car to be recovered and get going from the pits, but there was no chance to undo the damage to his result.
CHARLES LECLERC
16th, FRENCH GRAND PRIX
Leclerc’s pace wasn’t a problem at Paul Ricard as, at one stage, he did establish himself as the leader of the midfield pack.
But in a race where Ferrari struggled massively with the front tyres, Leclerc dealt with the problem poorly and slumped to a lapped 16th after making a second stop.
While it was a poor race for Ferrari as a whole, Leclerc fell into the vicious circle of tyre troubles far more quickly than Sainz – who overtook him – and didn’t come close to making the race strategy work.
CARLOS SAINZ
11th, PORTUGUESE GRAND PRIX
It was still early in his Ferrari stint, and the team’s decision to put him onto mediums rather than hards at his pitstop was an error, but Sainz didn’t deal with the Portimao situation as well as you’d normally expect a driver of his quality and skillset to do.
Having been as high as fourth early on, he dropped back to sixth but picked up graining after his pitstop and eventually slipped out of the points.
DANIEL RICCIARDO
12th, MONACO GRAND PRIX
While Ricciardo’s poor qualifying performance always meant he was up against it in Monaco, an uncharacteristically subdued first lap dropped him behind Lance Stroll and Kimi Raikkonen and condemned him to an afternoon stuck in traffic.
It was the nadir of Ricciardo’s difficult part of the season, and the weekend on which he fully understood just how much work he had to do to tune himself into the McLaren.
LANDO NORRIS
10th, BRAZILIAN GRAND PRIX
Norris’s season was of such a consistently high standard that it’s difficult to pick out a clear-cut worst race. Some will argue for Russia, but as that was a failure of weather forecasting rather than judging track conditions, it was quite the opposite.
But his clash with Sainz at the start of the Brazilian Grand Prix after going partially off the track on the run to Turn 1 then being a little aggressive in the way he moved back across cost him a strong result and left him with only 10th, albeit after a well-executed recovery.
FERNANDO ALONSO
10th, EMILIA ROMAGNA GRAND PRIX
While Alonso bagged the first point of his comeback at Imola after Kimi Raikkonen was penalised, it was not a good performance by anyone’s standards, let alone his own sky-high ones. And it went badly right from the reconnaissance laps, when he went off and damaged his front wing.
He was twice overtaken by Mick Schumacher during the race and had several spins, one after crawling through the debris left by the Russell/Bottas collision.
It was his first taste of the car in the wet, which played a big part in his struggles, but even so it stands among his least impressive race drives in F1.
ESTEBAN OCON
14th, STYRIAN GRAND PRIX
The Red Bull Ring double-header was problematic for Ocon, who felt car problems – notably a front suspension issue – ruined his Austrian and Styrian GP weekends. The team didn’t feel that it explained his struggles, but Ocon went nowhere in the Styrian GP.
He spent the race stuck in a midfield traffic jam and an extended first stint did nothing to change that, he simply wasn’t quick enough to be a points threat .
PIERRE GASLY
11th, QATAR GRAND PRIX
Gasly started on the front row and had a relatively straightforward race on what was an orthodox strategy, yet that added up to finishing outside the points.
The problem was the front-left tyre and despite a two-stop strategy, the pace simply drained away.
He held on in the points until late on, only to lose 10th to the recovering Norris, but while the AlphaTauri set-up played a part in this, Gasly struggled to mitigate what he called a “shocking” problem.
YUKI TSUNODA
13th, FRENCH GRAND PRIX
Starting from the pits after his crash in Q1 meant Tsunoda was always up against it, but his confidence appeared to be shot and despite having a relatively competitive midfield car, he made little progress.
He cleared the Haas and Williams drivers before his first pitstop, but went nowhere thereafter and was repassed by George Russell.
LANCE STROLL
DNF HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX
Stroll was relatively consistent during 2021, but his biggest mistake came at the start of the Hungarian Grand Prix.
There, independent of the Bottas error, he completely misjudged his approach to the first corner, had to take to the grass and clattered into Leclerc.
It was an easy mistake to make given how difficult it is to judge the available grip and the tyre and brake temperatures, but it cost what could potentially have been a good result.
SEBASTIAN VETTEL
DNF BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX
Vettel’s error clattering into the rear of Ocon in the Bahrain Grand Prix stands out because it meant his fresh start with Aston Martin began with the same old error.
As he moved into the turbulent air by slotting in right behind Ocon’s car, he lost front downforce and locked up.
Fortunately, it wasn’t the start of an error-strewn season for Vettel, but it was frustrating to see such a familiar mistake recurring on his first outing for a new team.
NICHOLAS LATIFI
17th, AUSTRIAN GRAND PRIX
Latifi didn’t have anything like his team-mate’s pace at a track where the Williams went well and had an untidy race, which started off by losing a place at Turn 1 to Schumacher – albeit with the Haas driver using the runoff to do so.
He repassed Schumacher but made little more progress, losing out in battle to Antonio Giovinazzi when he left the door open at Turn 4 and being hit with a post-race penalty for ignoring yellow flags.
GEORGE RUSSELL
DNF, EMILIA ROMAGNA GRAND PRIX
A lot of what Russell did at Imola in the race was outstanding, running in the points in the Williams and being on target for his first top-10 finish for the team.
But his attempt to pass Mercedes driver Bottas at the kink approaching Tamburello was not a well-calculated move, with Bottas’s line leading to him taking to the grass, losing it and spinning into the Mercedes.
It was a rare miscalculation from Russell in an otherwise superb race drive.
KIMI RAIKKONEN
DNF, PORTUGUESE GRAND PRIX
The Portuguese Grand Prix was one of the shortest, and perhaps the most ignominious of Raikkonen’s long career. Running behind Alfa Romeo team-mate Giovinazzi at the end of the first lap, he was instructed to repeat a switch change and, while doing so, failed to clock his closing speed and hit the back of his team-mate.
He then went off thanks to his front wing being caught under the car, bringing his race to a short, sharp end.
ANTONIO GIOVINAZZI
11th, TURKISH GRAND PRIX
While the Turkish Grand Prix wasn’t Giovinazzi’s worst race in terms of performance, it was the one where his decision making and execution combined to have a negative effect on his and the team’s result.
Giovinazzi had qualified more strongly than team-mate Raikkonen, but wasn’t as quick in the race. However, he shrugged off team orders to let his team-mate past (and based on the laptimes it was a logical call from the pitwall) then just failed to chase down Ocon and nick the final point while holding Raikkonen up in the process.
MICK SCHUMACHER
16th, EMILIA ROMAGNA GRAND PRIX
A lot of what Schumacher did at Imola was positive, notably passing Alonso a couple of times. But it was under the safety car, when he lost it trying to keep temperature and his tyres and nosed into the pitwall, that it all went wrong.
He made it back to the pits and finished the race, which was to his credit. But while he’s not the first to lose it on the impossibly low grip provided by the tyres when they lose temperature even at low speeds, and doubtless won’t be the last, it’s still a nadir for any F1 driver.
NIKITA MAZEPIN
DNF, BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX
Getting too aggressive on the throttle at the third corner of his first grand prix resulted in Mazepin flicking his Haas into the barrier in Bahrain.
Despite his reputation, it was the only time that a driving error of his own making led to him retiring from a race.
