The 2021 Formula 1 title fight between Red Bull and Mercedes could be a great opportunity for Scuderia Ferrari, at least in the first stages of the current campaign, with two-time Formula One World Champion Emerson Fittipaldi confident the Maranello team can ‘surprise’ in 2022.
Last season, Red Bull and Mercedes were focused on their close battle until the final round of the year, as Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton fought for the World title, which was decided on the final lap of the last race, in Abu Dhabi. The Drivers’ crown eventually went Red Bull’s way, but their former reserve driver Alex Albon warned they may have paid a price for that title fight.
He explained for Motorsport-Total that Red Bull’s main focus was on the 2021 car, in prder to give Max Verstappen the best possible chance at winning the Formula 1 title. Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko was quick to deny this, adding the team had “two different development programmes running in 2021 – both worked” and stated for F1 Insider that the Milton Keynes squad are “very well positioned” to defend Max Verstappen’s world championship.
Yet double former Formula 1 World Champion Emerson Fittipaldi believes Red Bull and Mercedes may start the season behind other teams that focused on the 2022 project earlier and spent most of the previous season working on the new generation of cars, teams such as Scuderia Ferrari.
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“They can be faster at the start,” – the Brazilian said, as reported by Motorsport.com – “A team like Ferrari has been working on the new season for much longer. You don’t know, there can be many surprises.” – he added.
At the same time, Emerson Fittipaldi knows that even if that will be the case in the first races, it will not be long before Red Bull and Mercedes catch up as while there is a budget cap in play, the top teams still hold an advantage gained through yesteryear’s spending.
“The bigger teams always have an advantage. But other teams can be closer this year. I think it will be more balanced. In any case, I’m happy with the new rules. I mainly hope the cars can follow each other a lot better. Hopefully that will give us more fun races to watch.” – he explained.
Formula 1 is starting a new era in 2021, with the introduction of ground-effect aerodynamics as the F1 bosses hope this will lead to better racing by making it easier for cars to follow each other: “I think the new regulations will cause a lot of surprises,” the 75-year-old said – “Whoever tackles the new rules the best has a real advantage. But you don’t know for sure until the first qualifying of the year because in the tests, you don’t know if they are driving full tanks and the track conditions also have a lot of influence.” – Emerson Fittipaldi concluded.
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