Formula 1 will start the second half of the season in France next weekend. Eleven races have been run and there are still eleven races to go in 2022. A good time for an interim report in three parts. In part one, we take a closer look at the top three: Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes.
1. Red Bull: 359 points, 7 wins
Max Verstappen’s team is in even better shape in terms of points than halfway through 2021, which is largely due to Sergio Pérez. The Mexican has 47 points more than last year after eleven races, Verstappen 21. That the Austrian racing stable leads both championships is impressive, given the intense title battle of 2021. That could have been a stumbling block for the new car, but it did not become.
The RB18 still has some shortcomings, such as too high a weight. Nevertheless, it is an excellent car that wins under its own power, especially on Sundays in the hands of both drivers. Red Bull’s strategic department has come out of the title fight with Mercedes hard and often outsmarts Ferrari.
Half copies of the car are already appearing in the pit lane here and there, a nice compliment for the Red Bull technicians. Kudos to Japan, where Honda put together a reliable and fast engine. Even though the car is now registered with a ‘Red Bull Powertrain’ and there is only a small ‘HRC’ sticker on the hood, Honda is still building the power source.
There are weaknesses: the speed over one lap still leaves something to be desired and the car still has too much understeer (slipping over the front wheels). Reliability is also not up to scratch, with two outages due to technical problems for both drivers. On circuits where the rear tires in particular suffer, such as Austria, the race pace also leaves much to be desired.
There is a constant stream of updates from the Red Bull factory, as we know it from the team. Now the big question is when that development budget will be used up.
Max Verstappen won six times, including in Miami.
Max Verstappen won six times, including in Miami. Photo: Getty Images
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2. Ferrari: 303 points, 4 wins
It’s easy to forget due to technical problems and strategic blunders, but Ferrari is experiencing a revival this year. The team is coming out of a two-year trough, with little innovation and a big gap to Red Bull and Mercedes. The chance that the Italians would build a much better car than Mercedes under the new rules was not very great.
But she succeeded tremendously well. While not everything is going smoothly, the Scuderia is in much better shape than it was in mid-2021.
The F1-75 stood out from the reveal with the large sidepods, which are nowhere to be seen further on the grid. It appears to work well; the car probably has the most downforce below the line. The new engine turns out to be a true traction beast, and then the new hybrid system is yet to come. The fact that the Ferrari often lacked top speed in the first half of the season had aerodynamic reasons. So in terms of horsepower, it’s pretty good.
The same cannot be said for reliability. Ferrari has solutions to the problems, but it will probably take until after the summer break for those to be implemented. There were already updates to the car itself, and they always turn out well. With a top speed that is hardly inferior to that of the Red Bull, the biggest weakness has been eliminated.
Since Carlos Sainz got underway, the Italian top team has also had an excellent driver duo. The pit wall unfortunately doesn’t keep up and fails glaringly every now and then. Monaco was a low point, although bad luck played a major role. At Silverstone, Ferrari did not choose Charles Leclerc, which was incomprehensible. Operationally, the team has been away from the front for two years, although strategic bumbling has long been a trademark of the Scuderia.
Charles Leclerc won his second race in Australia, but then it stalled for a long time.
Charles Leclerc won his second race in Australia, but then it stalled for a long time. Photo: Getty Images
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3. Mercedes: 237 points, 0 wins
66 points less than halfway through 2021. That is the damage at Mercedes after the W13 turned out to be a failure. And that’s somewhat flattering: George Russell and Lewis Hamilton often take advantage of Red Bulls and Ferraris dropping out. Despite seven third places, the first half of the season was a struggle.
The shock still struck competitors, fans and followers when Mercedes unveiled the extremely small sidepods in Bahrain. Hamilton’s renewed dominance has already been predicted. Nothing turned out to be less true: the car only sporadically comes close to the head. Just as often, Russell and Hamilton have to fight to stay out of midfield.
Porpoising has been identified as a major culprit, and the Mercedes has indeed long been one of the heaviest bouncing cars on the grid. This has only improved in recent weeks. But the team has also lost another advantage: the Mercedes power unit is no longer clearly the best engine.
For a long time, the technical team did not understand how to solve the problems, which only increased the gap to Ferrari and Red Bull. While those teams were busy making the car faster, Mercedes was at a loss. There was a lot of experimentation, which did not always benefit the results. The last few weeks the road out of the valley has started somewhat, but the gorge is there.
Russell is of course also a victim of the misery, but has been able to demonstrate that his arrival is more than justified. He makes it difficult for Hamilton, although the car of the seven-time world champion was mainly used to experiment. Mercedes has two top drivers, but no top car. Not for now, at least.
