German former racing driver Ralf Schumacher, the younger brother of seven-time Formula One World Champion Michael Schumacher, feels the 2022 Formula 1 title fight will eventually boil down to being between Red Bull and Mercedes again, as he believes Scuderia Ferrari will reach their competitive “limit” early in the 2022 F1 championship.
Scuderia Ferrari were considered to have a strong car for the new F1 campaig based on the data from the two pre-season testing sessions at the Circuit de Catalunya and in Bahrain, as the Maranello team was able to complete the most laps in Barcelona and run seemingly without any problems which proved the reliability of the F1-75 car.
The Italian side’s general pace seemed consistent as well, but at the end of the Bahrain testing session, team principal Mattia Binotto has tried to temper rising expectations surrounding Ferrari, stating that his team remain “outsiders” against the two teams that were involved in the fight for last year’s Constructors’ Championship.
Ralf Schumacher feels that Ferrari have reached the peak of their abilities early on in weekends in recent seasons, and believes that could count prove a disadvantage during the new campiagn. However, he would like to see Scuderia Ferrari be able to challenge Mercedes and Red Bull for race wins:
“I definitely think they have made a step forward, but will that be enough for the top? I’m not so sure,” the German said, as reported by SPEEDWEEK – “Especially since Ferrari tends to reach the performance limit earlier than other teams. We often saw that in the Friday practice sessions last year. I would like Ferrari to be at the front, because that’s important for Formula 1 worldwide.” – he continued.
Show your support for Scuderia Ferrari with official merchandise collection from Puma!
Mercedes have played down their chances of fighting at the top in the first part of the 2022 Formula 1 season, not least from Lewis Hamilton, who is not optimistic about his hopes in the opening rounds of the year. However, it is not the first time in recent years that Mercedes express worries about how their testing period went, before emerging at the season-opening race to be in front of everyone.
Ralf Schumacher predicts this could once again happen in the first round of the 2022 Formula 1 season, which takes place this weekend at the Bahrain International circuit, and thinks the new campaign will be set up for another tight tussle between Mercedes and Red Bull.
“Of course, Mercedes is not as far behind as the Bahrain timesheet makes it seem. I’m sure there’s still something to come. But we also have to remember that Bahrain has not necessarily been Ferrari’s patch in recent years. Mercedes has its own concept here. It’s designed to work well on most tracks. The bottom line will be Mercedes versus Red Bull Racing again.” – he concluded.
Leave a Reply