Opinion
Formula One’s new era of technical regulations has brought with it much excitement in its first thirteen races, with closer wheel-to-wheel racing and a mix in the competitive pecking order. Though that does mask the fact the world championship battle has largely been one-way traffic.
Reigning world champion Max Verstappen has been imperious, winning eight races and commanding an 80-point lead over Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc as Formula One gets ready to resume racing at the Belgian Grand Prix this weekend.
It is difficult to fathom how the 24-year old has been so strong this season, given that after the Australian Grand Prix of the new year he was 46-points adrift of title favourite Leclerc. Reliability problems slapped Red Bull in the face early, resulting in two retirements in the first three races.
Since then, Verstappen has boasted a podium result in every outing bar a seventh at the British Grand Prix where a puncture put the front-row sitter back in the pack. Such authority the Dutchman has had in 2022; with drives at Imola, Miami, Paul Ricard that it is quite reminiscent of four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel’s 2011 campaign for Red Bull.
Similarly, Verstappen’s 80-point margin over Leclerc heading into the summer break is as large a gap as Vettel himself held over teammate Mark Webber after the Hungarian Grand Prix in 2011. The German then had amassed 85-points en route to a second consecutive title.
It would be remiss to not wax lyrical about Verstappen’s race in Hungary, where he qualified tenth due to power-unit gremlins during Q3 and then slinked his way to win by 7.8 seconds amidst poor strategic calls by his rivals. Very much an under the radar performance, but perhaps the drive of the season.
Yet the Dutchman is hardly resting on his laurels, as reportedly there is still dissatisfaction in the Red Bull RB18, with its inherent weight problems and lack of consistent qualifying speed in comparison to Ferrari.
“I don’t really care about the points gap. Because for me, it’s all about trying to be perfect every single weekend,” Verstappen told The Race.
However, all the superlatives in the world about Verstappen cannot hide the fact that his and Red Bull’s chief rivals in 2022 have completely discombobulated their own season. Leclerc was in such great form when he took pole and won the opening rounds in Bahrain and Melbourne, but since then has stood in the shadow of the reigning world champion.
(Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)
Laughable are errors not only on the driver’s side, but predominantly the pit-wall at Ferrari. In addition to the reliability failures from the inherently fast F1-75 in Barcelona and Baku, Leclerc threw away the French Grand Prix – casting shades of Vettel’s 2018 Hockenheim implosion also in a Ferrari.
Appalling calls from the Ferrari pit-wall not only cost Leclerc wins in Monaco and Hungary, but even just a podium finish. The latter race still perplexing many, as to why the Scuderia crumbled to react to Verstappen’s second stop – when both drivers were running different tyre strategies.
At Silverstone, if Leclerc was in the mold of ruthless championship calibre driver, he’d have with authority demanded Ferrari pit him for fresh tyres at the end instead of teammate Carlos Sainz. As pleasing as it was to see the Spaniard earn his first Formula One win, from a title fight perspective – the team let their protagonist down.
Max Verstappen (Mark Thompson/Getty Images)
So, while Verstappen and Red Bull could go on to emulate their 2011 season, as long as an improving Sergio Perez – who won the Monaco Grand Prix – can be consistent enough to get ahead of Leclerc on points, the most comical concern now is Ferrari are under risk of losing second to Mercedes.
Eight-time constructor’s champions in Mercedes have had a torrid time in adapting to the 2022 regulations, but have stuck to their guns and have mostly tried to engineer a solution to the significant porpoising problems. Even if the FIA are going to be more stringent with the floors of the cars from Spa-Francorchamps onwards – which is more likely going to affect Red Bull and Ferrari – the Silver Arrows have demonstrated their operational sharpness contra to that of the Prancing Horse.
Now with nine races to go, will that one-way traffic continue for Verstappen and Red Bull? Or will Ferrari actually make a parting statement on 2022 to at least give their Tifosi semblance of hope they can challenge for the title properly the following year?
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