As the 2022 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix has now passed – and there have been three weeks since Formula 1 first arrived in Bahrain for the pre-season testing session and the first round of the championship – Scuderia Ferrari finds itself at the top of the constructors’ standings “with more points than Mercedes and Red Bull combined”, Mattia Binotto specifies, and the two drivers ahead of everyone in the World Championship.
The Maranello team took two double podium finishes and one race win out of two, two fastest laps out of two, 78 points out of 88 available. Charles Leclerc has been impressive, but a lot of credit should also go to Carlos Sainz in all of this, although the Spanish driver is still not entirely comfortable with F1-75.
The events are now settling down, but as reported by Italian daily newspaper Corriere dello Sport, it doesn’t take too much to remember what Ferrari’s goal was just two weeks ago: “Reduce the gap to Mercedes and Red Bull, win a few races, score podiums regularly and participate in the fight for the titles” – It did like a small target but now that Saudi Arabia has confirmed the positive impressions from Sakhir’s one-two finish for Ferrari, it can be said that the Italian side – the team, this car, this Charles Leclerc – are able to really challenge for the 2022 Formula 1 championship. In the sense that they have all the skills and means to go and win it.
John Elkann’s silence
The only discordant note so far is related to the “noteworthy silence” of President John Elkann, who avoided to make any public statements even after Ferrari’s great start of the season in Bahrain and also after the confirmation of a competitiveness that could not be taken for granted before 2022. According to Corriere dello Sport, this could end up giving the impression of “a top-management caught off guard and surprised by the success as if expecting the opposite from the team, which certainly cannot be the case. Can it?” – the Italian newspaper wrote.
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