Jonathan Wheatley, British Formula One mechanic and team manager, currently the sporting director at Red Bull, believes Scuderia Ferrari are the team to keep an eye out for in the 2022 Formula 1 season, pointing out to the Italian side’s improvement and strength of their current driver line-up with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.
In 2020, Scuderia Ferrari went through a difficult season, managing just three podium finishes and ending the championship in a disappointing sixth place in the Constructors’ standings – the worst result in the last four decades. Yet an overall improvement in 2021, including the package – which was boosted further an engine upgrade in the second part of the championship – was exploited by new teammates Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz to lead Scuderia Ferrari to a third place finish just behind title contenders Mercedes and Red Bull.
As the sport gets ready to begin a fresh era with completely new technical regulations, Red Bull Sporting Director Wheatley is aware that the 2022 pecking order is difficult to anticipate, but at the same time he singled out Ferrari as a potential challenger, taking into consideration their momentum.
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“I think it’s very difficult to predict at this point; you only have your own references compared with last year’s car,” Jonathan Wheatley told The Jack Threlfall Show, when asked about his expectations for the 2022 campaign – “You can get snippets of information from other teams, but you don’t know if they’re telling you the truth, or just trying to make you make worried. Basically, you have to look at your own office desk and you have to do the best job that you possibly can with that.”
The Red Bull sporting director added: “Ferrari – certainly the power unit – looked to be very strong at the end of the year; they were clearly the third-fastest team at the end of the year. They’ve got a great driver line-up, as well. I wasn’t sure about whether they would gel together as drivers, but they seem to have done that very well. I think Ferrari are going to be the big unknown, or possibly the big threat this year.”
Jonathan Wheatley explained that he would have no issues with the Italian side being involved in the title fight or with other competitors stepping forward:
“My idea of the perfect World Championship is the one that we win, obviously!” Wheatley laughed – “But I would like a bare-knuckle boxing fight from the first race to the last; I would like to have fighting every weekend. I would like to see, six, eight drivers capable of winning a race and it all comes down to who can string a championship together over 23 races. Who can make the fewest mistakes? Who can put the most competitive car down on the most weekends? Who can capitalise on those strategic calls at the last minute? Don’t get me wrong, it would be great to dominate [and] win 23 races a year! But my ideal championship is one where you’re exhausted at the end of the year, but that you’ve achieved something extraordinary.”
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