The 2021 Formula One season begins in Bahrain this weekend, with teams facing the longest ever 23-race season and Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton chasing a record eighth title.
So what should F1 fans expect this season? Here's a look:
Better racing?
F1’s technical overlord Ross Brawn has given the rules another shake up in a bid to improve the racing. Mercedes have won seven out of every 10 races since 2014 and fans desperately need a new script. Despite being forced into a money-saving holding pattern by the lingering pandemic, Brawn has come up with some clever tweaks.
This year’s cars are heavier and wider, the tyres harder. Less testing has been allowed and at-race practice reduced. Car aerodynamics have been simplified (most significantly at the back) so the ‘dirty air’ effect from the giant rear wings that interferes with overtaking has been cut by 60 per cent. The signs are cars will be able to race harder and closer.
Teammate wars
The F1 driver deck has been shuffled far more than usual this year and that means new rivalries and new challenges. Having despatched Sebastian Vettel last year, Ferrari’s golden boy Charles Leclerc faces highly-rated Spaniard Carlos Sainz who raced Max Verstappen close at Toro Rosso.
While four-time champ Sebastian Vettel joins Aston Martin looking for redemption after a disastrous time at Ferrari. He cannot afford to lose to the owner's son, Lance Stroll. Michael Schumacher's son Mick makes his F1 bow for Haas and cannot afford to be outgunned by fellow rookie Nikita Mazepin if he expects his Ferrari backing to pay off in a few years time.
Teammate wars – box office Alonso is back
The box office figure of Fernando Alonso returns to F1 with rebranded Renault searching for his third world championship. Seems to have lost none of his startling speed despite a pre-season bicycle crash which necessitated two titanium plates in his jaw. He pairs with youngster Esteban Ocon who was just 10 when the old warhorse won his first title.
F1 exhaustion
The longest season in the sport’s history starts on Sunday in Bahrain and ends just two weeks short of Christmas in Abu Dhabi. Twenty-three races is a milestone few teams ever thought they’d see. In fact, until recently the divorce rate was so high in the paddock, anything beyond a 20-race schedule was specifically banned. But with finances battered by the pandemic, the sport has been forced into a re-think.
Teammate wars – Red Bull
One of the most fascinating confrontations will be Max Verstappen versus Sergio Perez. At 31 and joining his fifth team in a decade, it’s make-or-break time for the Mexican. He was rated highly enough to be signed by McLaren as Lewis Hamilton’s successor only to be let go after one season. But he scored his first win last year in Bahrain. After a string of erratic drivers from their own academy, Red Bull say Perez’s form was too good to ignore. Whether he can live with Verstappen remains to be seen.
The king’s new clothes?
Racing Point and Renault have gone through significant rebrands for 2021. Renault switch to their sport brand Alpine, much as Mercedes use AMG, with double champion Fernando Alonso at the wheel. Racing Point slips into the racing green colours of James Bond’s favourite car maker, Aston Martin, after ambitious Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll acquired both and united them.
Teammate wars – McLaren
Which of the grid’s two chirpiest characters will stop smiling first as this rivalry heats up? Twenty-one year-old Lando Norris has a growing reputation on the line as he faces a career-defining year against proven winner Daniel Ricciardo. The Australian, tipped by many as a future champion, cannot afford a lacklustre year as he hunts a truly competitive drive. At 31, the clock is ticking.
New frontiers
Formula One races at two new venues in 2021 across the longest season in the sport's history. Zandvoort in Holland returns after a 36-year absence while Saudi Arabia's night race on Jeddah's Corniche is slated for the week before Abu Dhabi's finale. It will be the fastest street track on the calendar with average lap speeds topping 250kph.
The Honda engine
The fate of this entire season – and perhaps a few more to come – rests on the new Honda power plant and its surrounding hybrid technology. Pre-season testing suggests they have finally got one up on Mercedes but reliability is another matter. Performance in this hybrid era is a jigsaw of power sources from the ICE (internal combustion engine) to systems harvesting turbo heat and braking friction, as well as batteries storing it for invaluable extra boost. But can Honda really make all the parts work reliably enough across an exhausting 23 race season?
Ditching Saturday qualifying
F1 nervously embarks on one of the most dramatic experiments in recent years. Qualifying will move to Friday afternoon in favour of a Saturday 100km sprint race. The new race will have a small amount of points and decide the start order for the main race Sunday. Team talks this weekend in Bahrain will decide whether it will be trialed first at Silverstone in July, then Monza and later Brazil.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Desert Warrior
Starring: Anthony Mackie, Aiysha Hart, Ben Kingsley
Director: Rupert Wyatt
Rating: 3/5
More coverage from the Future Forum
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
HEADLINE HERE
- I would recommend writing out the text in the body
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JAPAN SQUAD
Goalkeepers: Masaaki Higashiguchi, Shuichi Gonda, Daniel Schmidt
Defenders: Yuto Nagatomo, Tomoaki Makino, Maya Yoshida, Sho Sasaki, Hiroki Sakai, Sei Muroya, Genta Miura, Takehiro Tomiyasu
Midfielders: Toshihiro Aoyama, Genki Haraguchi, Gaku Shibasaki, Wataru Endo, Junya Ito, Shoya Nakajima, Takumi Minamino, Hidemasa Morita, Ritsu Doan
Forwards: Yuya Osako, Takuma Asano, Koya Kitagawa
LA LIGA FIXTURES
Saturday (UAE kick-off times)
Leganes v Getafe (12am)
Levante v Alaves (4pm)
Real Madrid v Sevilla (7pm)
Osasuna v Valladolid (9.30pm)
Sunday
Eibar v Atletico Madrid (12am)
Mallorca v Valencia (3pm)
Real Betis v Real Sociedad (5pm)
Villarreal v Espanyol (7pm)
Athletic Bilbao v Celta Vigo (9.30pm)
Monday
Barcelona v Granada (12am)
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League final:
Who: Real Madrid v Liverpool
Where: NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium, Kiev, Ukraine
When: Saturday, May 26, 10.45pm (UAE)
TV: Match on BeIN Sports
Islamophobia definition
A widely accepted definition was made by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims in 2019: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” It further defines it as “inciting hatred or violence against Muslims”.
THE BIO
Age: 30
Favourite book: The Power of Habit
Favourite quote: "The world is full of good people, if you cannot find one, be one"
Favourite exercise: The snatch
Favourite colour: Blue
BlacKkKlansman
Director: Spike Lee
Starring: John David Washington; Adam Driver
Five stars
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
Infiniti QX80 specs
Engine: twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6
Power: 450hp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: From Dh450,000, Autograph model from Dh510,000
Available: Now
The drill
Recharge as needed, says Mat Dryden: “We try to make it a rule that every two to three months, even if it’s for four days, we get away, get some time together, recharge, refresh.” The couple take an hour a day to check into their businesses and that’s it.
Stick to the schedule, says Mike Addo: “We have an entire wall known as ‘The Lab,’ covered with colour-coded Post-it notes dedicated to our joint weekly planner, content board, marketing strategy, trends, ideas and upcoming meetings.”
Be a team, suggests Addo: “When training together, you have to trust in each other’s abilities. Otherwise working out together very quickly becomes one person training the other.”
Pull your weight, says Thuymi Do: “To do what we do, there definitely can be no lazy member of the team.”
What drives subscription retailing?
Once the domain of newspaper home deliveries, subscription model retailing has combined with e-commerce to permeate myriad products and services.
The concept has grown tremendously around the world and is forecast to thrive further, according to UnivDatos Market Insights’ report on recent and predicted trends in the sector.
The global subscription e-commerce market was valued at $13.2 billion (Dh48.5bn) in 2018. It is forecast to touch $478.2bn in 2025, and include the entertainment, fitness, food, cosmetics, baby care and fashion sectors.
The report says subscription-based services currently constitute “a small trend within e-commerce”. The US hosts almost 70 per cent of recurring plan firms, including leaders Dollar Shave Club, Hello Fresh and Netflix. Walmart and Sephora are among longer established retailers entering the space.
UnivDatos cites younger and affluent urbanites as prime subscription targets, with women currently the largest share of end-users.
That’s expected to remain unchanged until 2025, when women will represent a $246.6bn market share, owing to increasing numbers of start-ups targeting women.
Personal care and beauty occupy the largest chunk of the worldwide subscription e-commerce market, with changing lifestyles, work schedules, customisation and convenience among the chief future drivers.
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylturbo
Transmission: seven-speed DSG automatic
Power: 242bhp
Torque: 370Nm
Price: Dh136,814
Classification of skills
A worker is categorised as skilled by the MOHRE based on nine levels given in the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) issued by the International Labour Organisation.
A skilled worker would be someone at a professional level (levels 1 – 5) which includes managers, professionals, technicians and associate professionals, clerical support workers, and service and sales workers.
The worker must also have an attested educational certificate higher than secondary or an equivalent certification, and earn a monthly salary of at least Dh4,000.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Xpanceo
Started: 2018
Founders: Roman Axelrod, Valentyn Volkov
Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: Smart contact lenses, augmented/virtual reality
Funding: $40 million
Investor: Opportunity Venture (Asia)
Sun jukebox
Rufus Thomas, Bear Cat (The Answer to Hound Dog) (1953)
This rip-off of Leiber/Stoller’s early rock stomper brought a lawsuit against Phillips and necessitated Presley’s premature sale to RCA.
Elvis Presley, Mystery Train (1955)
The B-side of Presley’s final single for Sun bops with a drummer-less groove.
Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two, Folsom Prison Blues (1955)
Originally recorded for Sun, Cash’s signature tune was performed for inmates of the titular prison 13 years later.
Carl Perkins, Blue Suede Shoes (1956)
Within a month of Sun’s February release Elvis had his version out on RCA.
Roy Orbison, Ooby Dooby (1956)
An essential piece of irreverent juvenilia from Orbison.
Jerry Lee Lewis, Great Balls of Fire (1957)
Lee’s trademark anthem is one of the era’s best-remembered – and best-selling – songs.
How to apply for a drone permit
- Individuals must register on UAE Drone app or website using their UAE Pass
- Add all their personal details, including name, nationality, passport number, Emiratis ID, email and phone number
- Upload the training certificate from a centre accredited by the GCAA
- Submit their request
What are the regulations?
- Fly it within visual line of sight
- Never over populated areas
- Ensure maximum flying height of 400 feet (122 metres) above ground level is not crossed
- Users must avoid flying over restricted areas listed on the UAE Drone app
- Only fly the drone during the day, and never at night
- Should have a live feed of the drone flight
- Drones must weigh 5 kg or less
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
