The 2021 French Grand Prix (officially known as the Formula 1 Emirates Grand Prix de France 2021) was a Formula One motor race which took place on 20 June 2021 at the Circuit Paul Ricard in Le Castellet, Var. The 53-lap race was the seventh round of the 2021 Formula One World Championship. It was the 61st time the French Grand Prix had been included as a round of the world championship since the inception of the series in 1950.
Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen qualified on pole position, ahead of the Mercedes team's cars of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas. A mistake by Verstappen at the start handed Hamilton the early lead, but Verstappen regained the lead following the first round of pit stops. The Red Bull team agreed to use an alternative strategy, bringing Verstappen in for a second pit stop and dropping Verstappen eighteen seconds behind Hamilton, who reassumed first place. Verstappen (who had also claimed the bonus point for fastest lap) went on to win the race after he overtook Hamilton on the penultimate lap, with the newer tyres enabling his car to go faster. Verstappen's teammate Sergio Pérez overtook Bottas late in the race to claim third place. The result allowed Red Bull and Verstappen to extend their respective leads in the and Championships over Mercedes and Hamilton.
McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo improved upon their starting positions to finish fifth and sixth. This allowed the team to move up into third in the Championship standings, passing Scuderia Ferrari, whose drivers both finished outside of the top ten points-scoring positions following issues with tyre wear. Scuderia AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gasly, Alpine F1 Team driver Fernando Alonso, and the two Aston Martins of Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll made up the rest of the top ten finishers. There were no retirements.
Background
The event, officially known as the Formula 1 Emirates Grand Prix de France 2021, took place at the Circuit Paul Ricard in Le Castellet, Var on the weekend of . The French Grand Prix returned to the calendar during the 2021 Formula One World Championship after the 2020 edition was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic; this was its 61st appearance on the world championship schedule, and the 89th edition overall. It was the seventeenth Grand Prix held at Le Castellet, one of sixteen different venues which have hosted the race since the 1906 French Grand Prix, seven of which have hosted world championship races. The 1971 French Grand Prix was the first to be held at Le Castellet.
The race had originally been slated for , but was ultimately rescheduled to following the cancellation of the Canadian Grand Prix and the postponement of the Turkish Grand Prix. As a result of these changes, the French Grand Prix formed the first of three races on consecutive weekends, with the next two taking place at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria. The addition of a fourth group of three back-to-back races to the already-crowded calendar received criticism, with concerns expressed over the workload and its effect on the mental health of workers who travel to the races. There were two people who worked at the event who tested positive for COVID-19 during the course of race week.
Attendance was capped at 15,000 spectators per day because of the COVID-19 pandemic in France. The large size of the venue allowed for social distancing measures to be put in place, allowing more spectators than other events in France during the pandemic. It had been planned that Romain Grosjean, who had suffered injuries at the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix, would make a demonstration run for the Mercedes team at the event, and then test for them on the Tuesday after. The former was cancelled because the rescheduled race clashed with his Indycar Series commitments at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin; while the latter was postponed due to unfavourable quarantine requirements.
The circuit had been recently resurfaced and has fifteen corners, some of which had been reprofiled since the 2019 French Grand Prix. Changes were also made to the pit lane entrance. There were two drag reduction system zones; one located on the start-finish straight and the other between the seventh and eighth turns, on the first half of the Mistral Straight. The track is lined with large paved run-off areas. The fast middle sector followed by the curvaceous final sector means tyres can wear out quickly at Le Castellet, particularly in hot weather. The FIA Formula Three Championship and the Renault Clio Cup held support races during the weekend.
Sole Formula One tyre supplier Pirelli brought the middle range of compounds in terms of hardness (the "hard" C2, "medium" C3, and "soft" C4) with the smooth tarmac at the circuit not expected to excessively wear the tyres. Following high-speed tyre failures for both Lance Stroll and Max Verstappen at the 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix two weeks earlier, questions had been put to Pirelli about the safety of their tyres. Pirelli's investigation into the incidents concluded that neither they nor debris on the track were responsible for the failures; rather, they concluded that "the running condition of the tyre" was to blame. The FIA, the sport's governing body, instituted new protocols for checking tyres to ensure that similar incidents would not happen again. The intention was to stop teams from running tyres at below the prescribed minimum pressure, which had been raised by . New scrutineering tests would also be introduced checking the flexibility of the rear wings of cars.
Ten constructors entered two drivers each for the race, all of whom had previously raced at Le Castellet, with no changes from the season entry list. Roy Nissany drove for Williams in the first free practice session in place of George Russell. The event was Jost Capito's first Grand Prix as the team principal of Williams. The Red Bull Racing and Scuderia AlphaTauri cars received new Honda engines at this event. Red Bull entered the event with a shortage of spare parts following Verstappen's crash in Baku. McLaren and Scuderia Ferrari both made aerodynamic changes to their cars ahead of the event. The Aston Martin team chose to display the logos of the queer-inclusivity organisation Racing Pride, a long-term partner, on their cars to mark pride month. Branding relating to tobacco company Philip Morris (which had featured on Ferrari's cars at previous races in the season) was removed, starting from this Grand Prix, for the remaining European rounds of the championship. McLaren used the name of late shareholder Mansour Ojjeh on the side of the cars as a tribute.
Mercedes were the dominant team in the previous two races held at Le Castellet since the venue's return in 2018, with Verstappen expecting his rivals to be stronger than they were at the previous two races in Monaco and Azerbaijan. Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc had taken pole position at those two events, but team principal Mattia Binotto noted that those tracks were outliers in the schedule, being unusually suited to his team's car. Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said he hoped new directives on tyre usage would create greater equity between teams. McLaren driver Daniel Ricciardo expressed optimism for the race, believing that the track layout would help him adapt to driving for a new team after he was significantly slower than his teammate Lando Norris at the previous two rounds. Ricciardo described Le Castellet as "a much more conventional and forgiving track than Baku that also comes with slightly fewer risks." Haas Formula team principal Guenther Steiner said that reports of rancour between his team's drivers were exaggerated.
Before the race, Verstappen led the Driver's Championship with 105 points, four points ahead of Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton. They were followed by Sergio Pérez on 69 points, three points ahead of Norris in fourth. In the Constructors' Championship, Red Bull led with 174 points, holding a 26-point lead over Mercedes; Ferrari was third with 94 points and McLaren was fourth, two points further back. Prior to this race Mercedes and Red Bull had both won three races each in 2021, with Hamilton having won three times, Verstappen twice, and Pérez once.
Free practice A trio of one-hour long free practice sessions took place, two on Friday and one on Saturday before qualifying. Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas was fastest in first practice, ahead of Hamilton and Verstappen. Aston Martin driver Sebastian Vettel made contact with a wall during the session, but was able to return his car to the pit lane. The front wing of Bottas's car was damaged when he hit a kerb, prompting Mercedes to lodge a complaint about its location, with sporting director Ron Meadows calling the kerbs "too aggressive". Ex-driver and BBC Sport pundit Jolyon Palmer argued that the fact they caused minor damage helped to enforce track limits, and that it is what fans wanted. Mick Schumacher's car was also damaged in an incident; the Haas driver lost control of his car and tagged a wall. Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz Jr's tyres were damaged by the abrasive run-off area after he went off the track. Verstappen noted the challenge that unpredictable gusts of wind in the area posed to drivers.
In the second free practice session Verstappen set the fastest time, 0.008 seconds ahead of Bottas. Verstappen had been dissatisfied with his car's front axle in the first free practice session, and the Red Bull team made changes to the set up before the start of the second session. The front wing on Verstappen's car was damaged when he hit a kerb, prompting Red Bull to lodge a complaint about its location. A virtual safety car period was called, with drivers required to slow down so marshals could safely recover the debris, which Red Bull wanted returned to them. Teams raised concerns about the financial cost of cars being damaged following the introduction of rules restricting their spending for the 2021 season. Red Bull manager Jonathan Wheatley and Mercedes director Meadows both estimated that hitting a kerb could cause as much as £100,000 sterling in damage, whilst Steiner had instructed his drivers to take care to avoid hitting the kerbs, as any damage could eat into Haas's small budget. Wheatley described the potential damage from kerb strikes as "such a huge penalty for a minor indiscretion on the drivers' part." Michael Masi (Formula One's race director) noted that teams have requested measures such as kerbs to be put in place to stop drivers from gaining an advantage by leaving the track. The kerbs were the same as they were in 2019, but the new, smoother tarmac allowed teams to use stiffer suspension and for drivers to pilot their cars through corners faster. Unlike some other tracks, the kerbs at Le Castellet were positioned perpendicularly to the direction of travel, increasing the force of impacts.
In the final free practice session Verstappen was once again fastest ahead of Bottas, with Sainz third fastest. Verstappen was over seven-tenths of a second faster than Bottas. Starting from the third session, lap times were deleted if drivers left the track at the exit of the sixth corner. The FIA investigated issues regarding kerbing and decided against making changes before the session.
Qualifying