Formula One returns: A few firsts and a lot at stake
The HinduWill someone finally topple Mercedes? But in each of the past three seasons, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, a four-time world champion with Red Bull, should have challenged and could have beaten Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes. The result: Mercedes finished the season in first and second, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in third ahead of Leclerc. The six consecutive constructors’ crowns match Ferrari’s run between 1999 and 2004, and Hamilton could take home a fourth straight title to equal Vettel’s 2010-13 dominance. However, the coronavirus-curtailed season could make up for the gap to the Mercedes cars — there’s the obvious advantage in the first two races in Austria, and then there’s Hungary, where he took his first pole in F1 before finishing second last year, and Spain, the site of his first F1 win in 2016.