Photo: Honda 
When Max Verstappen lost control of his Red Bull-Honda Formula 1 racing car at the first corner of the Paul Ricard circuit, many viewers tuned out of the race, believing the result of the 2021 French Grand Prix to be a foregone conclusion. Lewis Hamilton would win and reclaim the lead in the championship.
It’s pessimistic, but previous races in France have been among the worst on the calendar, and Hamilton wins so often that his victories can sometimes seem inevitable. On this particular Sunday, however, history did not repeat itself.
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Thanks to a beautifully executed undercut, followed by a split strategy that caught Mercedes napping, Red Bull Racing managed to claim a 1-3 finish that had spectators on the edge of their seat all the way till the penultimate lap, when Verstappen decisively passed Hamilton for the race lead.
Before the race, Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner said that if his team could beat Mercedes at Paul Ricard, it could beat them anywhere. Though the final result was as much down to strategy as to sheer pace, the results certainly seem promising for Red Bull.
At the moment, its drivers seem more confident and more willing to work as a team than at Mercedes. Valtteri Bottas’s angry remark during the race (“Why the f**k did no one listen to me when I said it was going to be a two-stopper?”) and seething silence after the checkered flag did not reflect a positive working environment for the reigning champions.
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Behind the championship rivals, it was a good race for McLaren, which looked somewhat poor in qualifying yet had a great Sunday performance. It was the opposite for Ferrari, its drivers doing well in qualifying and looking completely lost during the race, perhaps because of their car’s high tire degradation. And it won’t be getting any better — Ferrari has already stated that it has halted the development of the 2021 car to focus on 2022.
The 2021 French Grand Prix marked the start of this season’s only triple header. We head to Austria next for two back-to-back races at the Red Bull Ring, where Verstappen has traditionally done well. He’ll be looking to extend a championship lead that, if not for his misfortune in Baku and Hamilton’s good luck in Imola, would already be substantial.
Kurt Verlin was born in France and lives in the United States. Throughout his life he was always told French was the language of romance, but it was English he fell in love with. He likes cats, music, cars, 30 Rock, Formula 1, and pretending to be a race car driver in simulators; but most of all, he just likes to write about it all. See more articles by Kurt.
