I had high hopes for the 2022 Formula 1 season, thanks to the new aerodynamic rules that were anticipating closer battles and more balance.
Unfortunately what we’ve seen has been more of the same as last years, with the title fight closed in the summer, limited on-track spectacle after the confusion of the first few races has been digested by all teams and lots of controversy, accusations, leaks, legal debates that outshined the sporting ones.
So the Brazilian weekend was a good concentrate of all of these, despite providing a decent show thanks to the nature of the circuit and the weather conditions.
Mercedes completed its recovery, gaining more than 1 second to Ferrari and Red Bull from the beginning of the year, which is inexplicable especially considering the budget cap; we’ll never know whether the TD 039 has played a big role in it or not, but in the modern F1 it is impossible to turn around things so quickly considering that two months ago in Spa, they were still nearly one second a lap slower.
Congratulations to Russell for his maiden win, but hopefully next season we’ll see whether it has been a genuine recovery or just a way of FIA and Formula 1 to add a new variable to mix things up a little bit.
Red Bull has probably little interest in dominating also the last two races, but the sudden decay of performance in Brazil is probably also part of a behind-the-scenes deal included in the agreement for the budget cap to let also other get some wins, so the Netflix fans and the media can still sell a defective product at reasonable price.
At Maranello, instead, they’re continuing the temperamental performance within the same weekend and often within the same race, hitting bulls eye on one choice and then destroying the benefits just few laps after or viceversa. Ferrari doesn’t seem too interested in getting second place in both Championships, claiming that they’re focused on next year; but that’s what they’re saying for a while now, and results are not adding up.
Despite a maiden victory, an unbelievable pole position from Kevin Magnussen’s Haas, great performances by Leclerc and Alonso, this weekend will be remembered only for the contact between Hamilton and Verstappen with a strange penalty for the Dutch, for the feuds between teammates at Red Bull, Alpine and Aston Martin and for the pre-race debates on upgrades, budget cap and so on.
Focusing on the fratricidal battles, I don’t think that Formula 1 is doing enough to punish those drivers that are constantly doing dangerous maneuvers against rivals like Stroll for instance; I’ve noticed that the amount of near misses is increasing and even if cars and tracks are safer and safer, it still takes nothing to have someone injured or worse in an F1 car.
Formula 1 has rightly focused on safety, often in an excessive way, like reducing or stopping wet races, but not enough is done to stop the main risk on track, which are bad drivers’ behaviors.
Finally a quick thought on the Sprint Race format: of course now all the media are cascading the message that Sprint Races are fun, entertaining and useful, after the last one, which is also the first one after six attempts that delivered something at least decent.
I’m not particularly interested in the number of overtaking or in the way it reshuffles the qualifying results.
In my opinion the Sprint Race doesn’t suit Formula 1, which must have one race, long enough to test drivers and cars.
Especially with the current rules where everything is limited, and any damage or substitution will generate penalties, it’s a format that does not make any sense. I believe it is the prelude to a two-races format, similarly to what happens already in Formula 2 and 3, maybe even with inverted grid, which will be the death of the sport.
All Along The Racetrack 