Making an accurate evaluation ahead of the start of a Formula 1 championship is a terribly difficult exercise because in the tests the first objective of any team is to understand the cars (especially if, like this year, they are the result of a completely new project) and the second is not to alarm the rivals. But there is no doubt that such a strong Ferrari hadn’t been seen since 2017 and 2018. In both cases, Sebastian Vettel, who was the top driver, won the Australian GP, then the inaugural race of the season, and kept Lewis Hamilton under pressure for much of the season. Now the same can happen with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz against Max Verstappen and (perhaps) Lewis Hamilton himself.
Here is the view of Italian daily newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport on Scuderia Ferrari’s prospects for the 2022 Formula 1 season based on the events in the Bahrain testing:
“Preparation is over, and Ferrari give the impression of having their hearts at peace, that is, they think they have done everything which was needed to be done during the six days of testing. Progress is evident, as is reliability, as evidenced by the 349 laps (1,889 km) completed by Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz in Bahrain alone. With excellent results in terms of the times. The two great protagonists of last season, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, almost never agree with each other, now as if by magic they do agree in indicating Ferrari as the winner of the pre-season testing, consequently as the favorite.
When it is evident that no one, least of all their Red Bull and Mercedes teams, has shown what it really is worth. Not even Ferrari did it: even its data must be evaluated in perspective. “I am satisfied with how I understand the car, with how it behaves with high fuel loads. I don’t know on the flying lap, because we didn’t try it,” confirmed Carlos Sainz. – “Nobody knows exactly where the other teams are. We know that Red Bull and Mercedes are very strong, we can see it from the GPS.”
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But Ferrari is also hiding its true pace. “It has been the smoothest preparation for the championship since I’ve been with this team,” said Charles Leclerc. “I know we have a margin, as our rivals have, we just don’t know how much.” It remains true that the F1-75 is giving very different and much more comforting answers than those provided by the red single-seaters that preceded it in recent years. In short, all the investment in terms of resources and time dedicated to this project are meeting the desired results. Team principal Mattia Binotto obviously plays down the team’s prospects, replying that the favorite is the one who won the last time and that his team “will try to be the outsider of the group, it will take a few races to understand the true values”. But it is understood that in Sakhir he had confirmation that things are going as he had planned. It is too early to say whether Ferrari will be able to win, but now we know they will be fighting to do so. And after what we have seen in recent years it is not insignificant.
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