The first draft for this piece was prepared on the eve of the New Year gone by, way before any of us got a look at the new 2022 cars. While the predictions were not off the mark by a great deal, being someone who takes pride in his work, analysis and subsequent predictions, I took my time gathering lap times and telemetry data of all the teams to update this piece.
Things have changed dramatically over the six-day pre-season testing period. At the end of the Barcelona testing, McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes were the teams who stood out as the frontrunners, while Williams looked to be one of the favourites to make the jump into the front of the midfield pack as Haas and Alfa Romeo looked devoid of ideas.
However, the testing in Bahrain spread out the field further, with Red Bull and Ferrari standing out as the top dogs followed by eight-time champions Mercedes, who looked more vulnerable than assured with their sidepod-less design, while McLaren were one of the biggest losers with Daniel Ricciardo sitting out with COVID and persistent brake heating issues that hampered their already-curtailed testing progresses.
History suggests that often one or two teams unearth some groundbreaking innovation and blow away their competitors like Brawn GP did in 2009 or Mercedes in 2014, while the rest end up playing catch-up throughout the year. Experts and the F1 community in general feel it will again be a Mercedes vs Red Bull two-horse race for the World Constructors’ Championship, although there is renewed optimism around Ferrari to deliver their first title since 2008. Teams like Alpine and Aston Martin could also spring a surprise or two and become frontrunners come Bahrain, while the optimism around Haas makes them one to watch as well when the cars hit the track on March 18.
So, without further ado, here are my predictions for the 2022 F1 season.
