With just a few days until the new power units are fired up on for the first race of the 2022 world championship at the Bahrain International Circuit, the Formula 1 world is trying to predict the on track values for this start of the new campaign:
“We have waited months, why can’t we wait one more week before drawing conclusions?” – Scuderia Ferrari Carlos Sainz smiled and answered when asked if the Maranello team could in fact become a title contender.
The first indications from the Bahrain pre-season testing session seem to show the fabled Maranello team at least very close to Red Bull Racing and Max Verstappen and apparently a few tenths ahead of Mercedes.
Alan Permane, the sporting director at the Alpine Formula One team, has been making his own evaluations: “The most useful indicator is race distances, because if a car does 50 laps with a tyre change, you know more or less what fuel was on board. And it looks like Haas, Aston Martin, Alpha Tauri and even Alfa Romeo are in the same zone. Everyone sees that Ferrari is fast unless they used very, very little fuel, but I doubt that as it’s not their style.” – the British Formula One engineer explained.
While another unnamed top team representative insists that the Red Bull is “by far the fastest” 2022 car.”, Red Bull advisor Dr Helmut Marko admits that their recent update introduced on the final day of pre-season testing session has allowed them to make a bip step forward in terms of performance: “We have at least drawn level with Ferrari with these updates.”
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And Scuderia Ferrari Mattia Binotto boss is aware of this: “Red Bull have a very strong car, but don’t forget Mercedes. They will get their bouncing problem under control, just like they solved their problems last year. I’m counting on them.”
Scuderia Ferrari’s recent GPS data analysis from the Bahrain test reportedly reveals that Mercedes actually has the fastest car in the slow corners, which is a key factor for the new generation of Formula 1 cars, but they have not yet managed to solve the ‘porpoising’ issue on the straights and have been running with the engine power turned down.
“We turned it up once or twice,” a Mercedes engineer insists.
Ferrari team boss Binotto continued: “My feeling tells me that it’s all going to be very close. Maybe not the first race, but after three or four races at the latest.”
Former Formula 1 driver Ralf Schumacher feels that from the very start of the new season, the FIA will be busy with teams pointing the fingers at each other for supposedly breaking the rules: “I can imagine one or two protests,” the former F1 driver said in a recent interview for Sky Deutschland – “We have 1000 engineers working on the cars and a dozen experts at the FIA, but that’s just what Formula 1 is all about. It’s always exciting,” Ralf Schumacher said.
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