Seventeen races in 24 weeks, 13 podium finishers, two first-time winners, an historic title win, great races and astonishing emotion... what a season in F1 it was. Tasked with each picking a different memorable moment from F1 2020, the Sky F1 team at the Abu Dhabi GP explained their picks
Tuesday 29 December 2020 06:10, UK
Martin Brundle: "Where do you start? It has been one of the most remarkable seasons I've ever experienced in 37 years of this business. But I've gone for Lewis Hamilton winning the Turkish GP, in great style.
"He did not have the fastest car on the track in that day in history yet lapped his team-mate and won by half a minute in treacherous conditions when people couldn't find any grip. That, of course, meant he matched the great Michael Schumacher's tally of seven Formula 1 world championships, in a style in which Michael would have been very proud and very impressed by."
Paul Di Resta: "The first person ever to be last at the first lap and win a Grand Prix. I think it could be career-defining. Not that I don't think he deserved it before, but I think he's shown great fighting spirit.
"It couldn't happen to a person who is more liked in the paddock. It caught everybody's hearts."
David Croft: It's not often you get a moment that inspires a nickname. He's not Nearly Man Norris, he's Last Lap Lando! Back in Austria, Charles Leclerc had started to move through the field and Lando was soon doing that too. A great move on Sergio Perez, barging his way past, and he set the fastest lap of the race on the final lap of the race.
Anthony Davidson: "I'm going to go for George Russell in Bahrain finally getting the chance to drive a car at the sharp end of the field. Big shoes to fill - although his shoes were actually a bit too big! - but he squeezed into that car and he made it work.
"Started the race at the front, got into the lead at the start, and obviously then had bad luck. But he just didn't give up and it was great to see this young driver full of energy given that chance. It didn't end well, but something tells me we're going to see him back at the front in the future."
Ted Kravitz: "Just over a year after being demoted by Red Bull Racing, Pierre Gasly goes to AlphaTauri and, ok courtesy of a mistake by the Mercedes team that got Lewis Hamilton a penalty, he managed to get the win.
"There was that moment he spent on the podium thinking of his friend Anthoine Hubert, who passed away at Spa-Francorchamps a year earlier, and who had said to Pierre 'prove Red Bull wrong'. Pierre really did that on that day at Monza."
Natalie Pinkham: "The most powerful images of 2020, and indeed my whole career in Formula 1, had to be seeing Romain Grosjean emerge from what was a potentially fatal crash relatively unscathed.
"Seeing him walk away, with incredible work from the medical team and the marshals. The overall response from the whole paddock was intensely moving."
Simon Lazenby: "I'm going with Daniel Ricciardo and that first podium for Renault since Nick Heidfeld back in Malaysia in 2011. The first of two which mean Cyril [Abiteboul] is going to have to get a tattoo when he eventually gets around to it.
"We wondered if Renault were going to leave this sport, but Ricciardo scored double the amount of points that he did last year. They are on the right trajectory."
