British former racing driver and the 1996 Formula One World Champion Damon Hill believes Ferrari and Charles Leclerc can still turn things around in the championship battles with Red Bull and Max Verstappen, pointing out that the Austrian team’s reliability could play into Ferrari’s hands in the second part of the season.
Damon Hill feels “things will happen between now and the end of the season”, as reliability will definitely become akey factor in the title duel and Red Bull could also face similar issues at one stage later in the year. The former F1 driver thinks the championship is “still too close to call” despite the fact that Max Verstappen’s now has a solid 34-point gap over Charles Leclerc, while the Monegasque driver has now found himself behind the other Red Bull of Sergio Perez.
However, Damon Hill thinks Red Bull is “not on top of everything yet” after they also suffered two retirements in the first part of the 2022 F1 campaign, which could throw Ferrari a lifeline.
Charles Leclerc has had a difficult run in the last three races, having to retire at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona due to a power unit issue, then last a certain win in the Monaco Grand Prix, finishing outside the podium and finally once again suffered a DNF due to an engine failure, this time at the Baku City Circuit in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
When asked if the Baku incident was in fact title-deciding, the former F1 driver pointed out that the season was still “all to play for”. Speaking on the F1 Nation podcast, he added: “No I don’t think it is, I still think it’s too close to call. I think there’s definitely reliability questions still on the side of Red Bull as well. I don’t think they are completely on top of everything yet. These are new cars, things will happen between now and the end of the season. I think it’s all to play for. Because it’s spread around between quite a few cars I think the championship is still very tight for this stage. We’ve seen championships at this point in the championship where people have got 35-point leads and even bigger than that. No, I think it’s still open.”
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“After the two retirements at the start of the season, everyone thought it could be lost. Now you see Ferrari is currently having problems, but things can change in an instant and it remains a very technical sport. Then you notice that Red Bull often has things in order, with their skilled people and experience.” – he concluded.
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