After just five rounds of the 2022 Formula 1 championship, it is already clear we are seeing a new complexion as compared to the previous F1 campaign. While Red Bull has remained on top, the most important change is the rsult of contrasting fortunes of two teams: the resurgence of Scuderia Ferrari after several difficult years and the struggles encountered by Mercedes 2022, after dominating the sport for most of the last decade. This has led to a very interesting 2022 Formula 1 season, making the outcome of this year’s battle for the title impossible to call.
Despite the fact that Red Bull and Max Verstappen have won the last two races, in Italy and Miami, Scuderia Ferrari Charles Leclerc still leads leads the driver standings ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix, 19 points clear of the 2021 F1 world champion, who took his third win the 2022 F1 campaign in the Miami Grand Prix last weekend.
Red Bull and Scuderia Ferrari are separated by just six points in the constructor standings after five rounds, while Mercedes, who dominated the sport in the previous eight championships, has to settle for an uncharacteristically third place and does not seem able to recover the gap in 2022 given its current issues:
“It’s great to be racing Ferrari, it’s good for Formula One to have Ferrari competitive,” Red Bull boss Christian Horner said in a recent interview for CNN Sport during the Miami Grand Prix weekend, the ianugural event in Florida – “Charles Leclerc’s doing a great job, Carlos Sainz is a first-class driver as well … We know Mercedes will sort their problems out. It’s great for Formula One to have another team in the mix.” – he added.
Christian Horner admits that the 2022 Formula 1 season represents something like a changing of the guard, as Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc are both very youngd have have many years of racing potentially still ahead of them: “It’s a great competition between this young generation that’s coming through. Charles and Max have raced each other since they were kids. The racing between the two of them at each Grand Prix so far this year has been fantastic.” – the Red Bull boss continued.
The 2021 Formula One championship was maked by an intense and very much controversial outcome in the final round, which took place in Abu Dhabi. Max Verstappen won the title against his rival Lewis Hamilton in the final lap, after some highly controversial decisions which were criticized by many. Now Red Bull looks set to be engaged in another arm wrestle this season, but this time against the Maranello team.
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While Red Bull and Mercedes were fighting for the 2021 titles, Scuderia Ferrari decided to completely focus its attention and resources on the 2022 project given the new rules and regulations that were set to be introduced this campaign and led to teams redesigning their cars based on very different concepts as compared to the previous years. And Ferrari’s decision paid off, taking into consideration the problems encountered by Mercedes with the new rules, while Red Bull has outperform the team’s initial expectations, team principal Christian Horner admitted:
“Having put so much effort into last year’s car, to come on to these new regulations, we elected to take that risk because we had an opportunity to win last year and you’ve got to go for it. That put huge pressure on the team coming into the second half of last year that we had to play catch up. Personally, I didn’t expect us to start the year as competitively as we have. To be on the front row of the first race, to win the second race, to win and get a one-two in Imola has been an unbelievable start for us, and I think testimony to all the team for doing such a phenomenal job in such a short space of time.” – the Red Bull boss concluded.
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