 Team changes- After the Shadow team had been absorbed into Theodore Racing halfway through the season. Theodore entered this season with their own chassis and the Shadow name disappeared.
- In 1980, RAM Racing had raced with a customer Williams chassis, but they did not enter the 1981 season. March Engineering, however, used that chassis to make a return to Formula 1.
- After finishing 1–2 in the 1980 European Formula Two Championship, Toleman entered Formula 1. Discussions took place with Lancia as possible engine supplier, the team decided to use a turbocharged version of the Hart F2 engine. It made them one of the early adopters on the trend towards turbocharged cars, but their first chassis was overweight and underpowered.
- Ligier had acquired substantial sponsorship from Talbot and other public French companies. Talbot supplied Matra V12 engines.
Driver changes
There had been a lot of change over the winter:
- Ligier had lost Didier Pironi to Ferrari, where World Champion Jody Scheckter had retired. They hired Jean-Pierre Jabouille from Renault, but when the season started, he was still recovering from his leg injuries sustained in the 1980 Canadian Grand Prix. Jean-Pierre Jarier had left the team, but acted as his stand-in for the first two races of the 1981 season.
- Renault managed to sign Alain Prost, despite his two-year contract with McLaren, so the British team had to scramble for a new driver. Main sponsor Marlboro suggested Andrea de Cesaris from Alfa Romeo when he had to move for World Champion Mario Andretti. The American had spent five years with Lotus. Nigel Mansell was promoted to a full-season drive with the Lotus team.
- Tyrrell had lost both of its 1980 drivers and so hired Eddie Cheever from Osella and an inexperienced Kevin Cogan.
- Another ten driver changes happened in the lower-ranking teams.
Mid-season changes - Kevin Cogan did not manage to qualify for the opening race and was sacked by the Tyrrell team. It was Cogan's last F1 outing. He was replaced by Ricardo Zunino, who had spent the first half of driving for Brabham. After two races, however, Zunino was moved aside for sportscar driver Michele Alboreto.
- During the first lap of the San Marino Grand Prix, Osella driver Miguel Ángel Guerra was hit by Eliseo Salazar, crashed into a wall and suffered a broken wrist and ankle. Piercarlo Ghinzani made his debut to replace the Argentinian. Later, Giorgio Francia took over for one race, and Jean-Pierre Jarier finished the season, looking forward to a full-season drive in.
- From the Belgian Grand Prix on, Jan Lammers had to give up his seat for Slim Borgudd, the drummer for ABBA. There was no cash sponsorship, but the world famous band's logo on the car's sidepods was a hopeful move by the ATS team to attract other investors.
- Before the Spanish Grand Prix, Eliseo Salazar moved from March to Ensign, replacing Marc Surer. The Swiss driver moved to Theodore, from where Patrick Tambay moved to Ligier. Their driver Jean-Pierre Jabouille retired from F1, concluding he could not fully recover from last year's leg injuries.
- For the last two races of the season, Jacques Villeneuve Sr. made his F1 debut with Arrows. Their driver Siegfried Stohr was traumatised by the start-line accident at the Belgian Grand Prix and decided to retire to start a racing school and safe driving academy.
Calendar
The championship was contested over the following fifteen races:
| Round | Grand Prix | Circuit | Date | | 1 | United States Grand Prix West |  Calendar changesTechnical regulations- For the first time, the survival cell was treated as an entity and an integral part of an F1 car. It had to extend in front of the driver's feet and wholly reinforced.
- The minimum weight of the car was raised from to.
Sporting and event regulations - Tyre barriers were installed at certain tracks for the first time.
- All pit lanes had to have a minimum width of.
- At the start of the race, drivers were placed on the grid in a 1x1x1 fashion, instead of a staggered 2x2 pattern.
Season report
Non-championship race: South AfricaThe South African Grand Prix, held on 7 February at the Kyalami Circuit near Johannesburg, was originally supposed to be the first round of the 1981 Formula One World Championship – but it was eventually stripped of its championship status. The ongoing FISA–FOCA war resulted in Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile insisting on a date change which was not acceptable to the race organisers. Approval was ultimately given for the race to go ahead on its original date but as a Formula Libre race rather than as a round of the Formula One World Championship. The downgraded race was supported by the Formula One Constructors Association aligned teams but not by Ferrari, Ligier, Osella, Renault, or Alfa Romeo, whose allegiances lay with FISA. This race was run with the cars running in 1980-specification trim, with the ground-effect wing cars of the time, equipped with sliding skirts that increased their downforce by ensuring the air under the car did not escape from under the car, where the most important airflow was.
In qualifying, it was once again a major battle between the major players of 1980. The Brabham of Nelson Piquet battled the two Williams cars of Alan Jones and Carlos Reutemann for pole position. Piquet took pole, with Reutemann in second. Reutemann had a close call when in the closing minutes of the session, his Williams spun off and went into the catch fencing. The fencing had wrapped around his windpipe and had begun to strangle Reutemann, and the hapless Argentine was unable to remove the catchfencing on his own. It was only the quick mobilisation of the marshals that were able to rescue Reutemann from what could have quite easily have been his death. Following Reutemann was Jones, Keke Rosberg in the Fittipaldi, Elio de Angelis, Riccardo Patrese, Ricardo Zunino, Nigel Mansell and Andrea de Cesaris.
The race was held in quite wet conditions, however the rain had abated shortly before the start of the grand prix. Notably, only Carlos Reutemann from second on the grid and Keke Rosberg in fourth on the grid who went for slicks, everyone else would choose wet weather tyres. Unsurprisingly, Reutemann and Rosberg made poor starts in the still wet conditions. Piquet maintained his lead as Reutemann dropped behind Elio de Angelis and the fast starting Jan Lammers who had come up from tenth on the grid. Lammers was running well behind De Angelis before he went for the overtake on the second lap. Lammers lost control in the wet conditions and tapped the rear of De Angelis where he spun wide into the gravel trap. He dropped right down to the back of the field where he would go on to retire later in the race with brake fade. Nigel Mansell had made a storming start, moving into fourth place with John Watson right behind him. The reigning champion Alan Jones had dropped down to sixth after a poor start to the race. Derek Daly had also done well to climb up to seventh on March's return to F1. On lap 4, both Mansell and Watson moved ahead of Reutemann. A three-way battle for second place then followed with De Angelis, Mansell and Watson. Lap 5 saw Watson move ahead of Mansell, the following lap he moved ahead of the other Lotus of De Angelis. Alan Jones then began a comeback drive, moving ahead of Reutemann and Mansell. On lap 11, Geoff Lees spun off the circuit in his Theodore, Lees unluckily went through the catchfencing and was hit on the head by one of the catchfencing poles. Lees had to be lifted out of the car by the marshalls as he had been briefly knocked unconscious by the pole. The track had then begun to dry, Alan Jones was the first driver to come into slicks with Nigel Mansell following suit, despite having spun on the previous lap. Jones having aquaplaned off the circuit on his out-lap damaged the rear of his car. Jones returned to the pits as his mechanics were forced to repair his rear wing. Jones would later retire with a loose skirt. By this time, only Piquet and Watson were the only front runners not to have pitted. Piquet pitted for new tyres, allowing Watson to take the lead of the race. Watson then followed Piquet into the pits the following lap. Reutemann inherited a comfortable lead; his gamble of racing with dry tyres since the start of the race had paid off. Female racer Desiré Wilson retired on lap 51 when she spun her Tyrrell off the circuit. Reutemann took a comfortable win, 20 seconds ahead of Piquet and ahead of De Angelis, Rosberg and John Watson in a McLaren.
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