Following a majority freeze in the technical regulations for 2021 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the performance gap between the leading teams and the rest of the grid has dropped this year.

Less than half a second covered the top eight drivers in qualifying for last weekend’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola, including drivers from Mercedes, Red Bull, AlphaTauri, Ferrari and McLaren.

At the same race six months earlier, only Lewis Hamilton qualified within half a second of teammate Valtteri Bottas’ pole position time, with the top eight being covered by more than one second.

F1 is set to overhaul the technical regulations in 2022 after delaying the introduction of the new rules by one year, but many fear the current competitiveness of the field will be lost.

Mercedes team bos

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