1997 Formula One World Championship Jacques Villeneuve has admitted to being impressed by Scuderia Ferrari’s F1-75 car this season and offered words of encouragement to the tifosi, describing Ferrari’s 2022 challenger as “very fast” and labelling the Italian side the “new Mercedes”.
Despite the fact that just three events have beem completed this year out of a total of 23 races scheduled in the current championship, there are a lot of encouraging signs for Ferrari which are pointing to a great season for Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, as the duo look to bring the Formula 1 title back to Maranello.
The Monégasque driver scored two race wins in this start of the season and also has a second place finish in the first three races, while scoring the fastest lap points in all three. This has led to a 34-point advantage in the title race, with former Formula 1 champion Jacques Villeneuve explaining this could be Ferrari’s season.
“In Italy I am often asked ‘Is this the year, is it really going to happen?’ The tifosi find it hard to believe. You see them thinking ‘When will things go wrong?’ They are used to that after the Alonso and Vettel years,” he said in a recent interview for Formule1.nl – “But Ferrari is very fast, actually it is the new Mercedes!” – he said.
This was certainly a welcome change of fortune as compared with the previous years, with Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton the only ones involved in the battle for the titles during the last two seasons. For now, Mercedes seem far behind, while Red Bull are also fast, but are suffering with engine reliability issues. The RB18 has retired three times in three races: Max Verstappen could not score any points in Bahrain and Australia, while Sergio Perez made it a double DNF at the Sakhir circuit.
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“At Red Bull people are frustrated, there is no other way,” Jacques Villeneuve said. “The car is fast but difficult to drive. To get the last much-needed tenths in the battle against Ferrari, Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez have to pull out all the stops. Ferrari is marginally faster but apparently easier to drive and easier to tune. They will still be near the front with a lesser weekend. That is psychologically tough for Red Bull. They are used to chasing Mercedes but now they are the champions. That brings another pressure. They should have been top four with both drivers and second among the constructors but that is nowhere near the case.” – he continued.
Given the impressive results in the first three races, Charles Leclerc enjoys a strong gap in front of the standings, while Ferrari has also capitalized on Red Bull’s issues: “These are very expensive DNFs, also because Charles Leclerc continues to win. He now has the championship under control. Of course there are still 20 races to go and a lot of work still to be done. But he has his team-mate at a distance, the team more or less behind him and a gap to his main competitor Max Verstappen.” – Jacques Villeneuve concluded.
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