The 2021 season had dominant teams and also huge battles, with one going all the way to the last few laps of the final race.
The Hypercar division was one where two cars from the same team dominated right from the start. Toyota’s two teams were the main feature of the entire season, which is no change from the past four years.
Toyota’s Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, and Jose Maria Lopez triumphed for the second consecutive time, in addition to getting a win at Lemans.
Only the French Alpine team was able to mount a challenge, but the car had a smaller gas tank than Toyota. Even when Alpine took the lead, the small tank forced drivers to pit and surrender the lead.
Next year, new teams will enter the competition–Peugeot and Colles, for sure, and possibly Glickenhaus. The expanded field will enhance competition and bring even greater racing excitement.
The LMP 2 division was more competitive, a battle among four teams–Racing Nederland, Dragonspeed, and two JOTAS. It was a battle to the very last race where Robin Frijins, Ferdinand Hapsburg-Lothringen, and Charles Millisi celebrated their championship in refined style.
The most controversial group class was the LMGTE Pro, which featured only two teams. But Ferrari and Porsche took the fight to the last laps of the final race in Bahrain, and fans were treated to a dogfight.
The Ferrari of Alessandro Pier Guidi struck Porsche’s Michael Christensen, claiming that the Dane brake tested him. The result was Christensen spinning off the circuit. Marshals forced Pier Guidi to give Christensen the position back. Then Christensen pulled into the pits for a fuel stop, which confused Pier Guidi, but he continued without obeying the penalty issued to him. With no reversal of the decision by the stewards, Pier Guidi, along with James Calado, took the championship.
The LMGTE AM group was about as exciting as the Hypercar class, with the trio of Francois Perrodo, Nicklas Nielsen, and Alessio Rovera winning. It was with Perrodo’s third consecutive championship.
Ben Keating, the only American in the entire competition, was on track to win a championship, but a first-lap collision with Aston Martin’s Paul Della Lana derailed his chance to unseat the leading Ferrari.
2022 will see fewer entries in some divisions and increasing lineups in others. We’ll have a better idea in very early 20202 about who will challenge in each of the four racing classes.
Courtesy FIA WEC
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About Mark Gero
Mark began his addiction to Formula 1 racing watching races on the television at Watkins Glen and attending Grand Prix races in person at Long Beach, California in the 1970s and early 80s. Turning to the journalism side of motorsports in 2001, Mark started by writing Grand Prix weekend stories for San Diego, California based All-Sports under Jerry Preeper. He left one year later for E-Sports in Florida. Mark’s big break came when he wrote for the late Mike Hollander at Racing Services. Then, in 2010, he joined Racingnation for three seasons. For the remaining part of this decade, Mark continued to advance, writing articles for the Munich Eye Newspaper in Munich, Germany, and returning to the U.S. to finish his degree in Journalism and Mass Communications at Ashford University. After graduating, Mark was hired by Autoweek before moving on to the racing website, Frontstretch, until late last year. Mark currently lives in Los Angeles, California.
