What the 2022 F1 Bahrain GP has taught us

Arthur Viana, 20 March 2022

Formula 1 has finally returned, and the 2022 season is on. Charles Leclerc and his incredible Ferrari won the Bahrain GP with fashion, and now that we have some real results, we’ll go through every team to see how their cars and drivers went this weekend dividing them by grid levels, and how they adapted (or not) to the new regulations that changed the cars so drastically.

The Back of the Grid

10: Williams - Albon P13; Latifi P16

Same old, same old. Williams were rather disappointing in this race, in my opinion. Every single year we expect them to get better and really fight for points, but it just never happens. I believe they’ll get some points occasionally, but in general, they’ll be the team that almost always get close to the top 10 but aren’t good enough yet. I think they’ll fight for the most part of the season against the next team on the list.

9: Aston Martin - Stroll P12; Hulkenberg P17

Another big disappointment is Aston Martin. With the investment from Lawrence Stroll and a big name like Sebastian Vettel (who didn’t race due to Covid-19) with the team, I expected more than no points and no fight. Hulkenberg is the reserve driver, so it was expected that he wouldn’t do that well, but last place is just sad. Stroll had a more discrete race, but was too far away from P11. It seems like their rivals in the championship this season is going to be another British team, though.

8: McLaren - Ricciardo P14; Norris P15

I wish I could say “same old, same old” to McLaren as well. What happened with the team that was improving every season, fighting for podiums and even wins? Their performance this weekend was the same as their livery: depressing. Ricciardo qualified P18 and spent a lot of time in last place behind Latifi. Norris kept dropping until he finally stopped on P15. What a shame. This team had and still has the potential to be at the top. Maybe I’m being too harsh, but this weekend was embarrassing for McLaren.

The Midfield

7: Alpine - Ocon P7; Alonso P9

Here is where the midfield starts. Honestly, I was expecting Alpine to be a little more exciting, but I guess it will be the same as last season. What I’m curious to see is Alonso’s season. We know that he came back to the sport to have a chance to fight at the top, and if Alpine doesn’t give him that package, maybe we’ll end up seeing the old and angry Alonso from the McLaren days. I definitely don’t want to see this happen, but I feel like the season is going to be very frustrating to the Spaniard.

6: Haas - Magnussen P5; Schumacher P11

This one’s nice. After seeing how Haas struggled over the past three years just to stay alive, it feels good to see them recovering. Magnussen had a great qualifying session, and could have been even higher in the race if it wasn’t for some little mistakes he made, but since he just came back to F1, we’ll let it slide. Schumacher wasn’t as good as his teammate, but had a good race under his own limitations. They will be exciting this year.

5: Alfa Romeo - Bottas P6; Zhou P10

Another one that I’m personally happy to see do well. Alfa is a team that were never exciting after they took Sauber of their name. Maybe this year, things will turn around. Valtteri Bottas had a great qualifying session with a P6, had an unlucky start to the race dropping eight positions, but still managed to come back to where he started. The rookie Zhou Guanyu had a great race as well, way better than I personally expected. Times are good for Alfa Romeo.

4: AlphaTauri - Tsunoda P8; Gasly DNF

Almost at the same level as Alfa Romeo, in my opinion, there’s AlphaTauri. Their car is faster this year, and Tsunoda had a good recovery and Gasly was running P5 before his car started catching fire. And that’ exactly what worries me, the reliability. Not only Gasly had to retire from this race, but also the two Red Bulls, who have the same Honda engines as AlphaTauri has. Maybe it was just incredible bad luck for both teams, but one thing is concrete: they are fast.

Upper Midfield

3: Mercedes - Hamilton P3; Russell P4

This is weird. I’m not used to seeing Mercedes struggle. The team that has dominated the sport for the last eight years is now the third best car on the grid. Unbelievable. It was agonizing seeing this car almost catching a Red Bull or a Ferrari, but even with DRS they couldn’t get past them. Mercedes dropped the ball with the engine this year, and not only them, but also for Williams, Aston Martin and McLaren, who are all jeopardized with a weak Mercedes engine. There’s still room for improvement though, and the driver pairing in this team is arguably the best of the entire grid.

The Top of the Grid

2: Red Bull: Verstappen DNF; Pérez DNF

Yeah. That was an embarrassing race for Red Bull. Verstappen had a guaranteed P2 until he started to complain about how the steering was suddenly a lot harder, and then his car just gave up. After Verstappen’s retirement, Pérez had P3, and for sure he would get away from Hamilton behind him, but with one lap to go, his car died as well. However, it’s evident how fast the car is, and the difference between them and the two Mercedes behind them was enormous. Maybe if the reliability issues get resolved, they’ll have the power to fight what is surely the best car of 2022.

1: Ferrari: Leclerc P1; Sainz P2

Absolutely phenomenal from Ferrari. They got the engine right, they got the car right, and they have two incredibly talented drivers taking care of their cars. Every team with a Ferrari engine has shown massive improvements, Ferrari itself is obviously one of them. It was impressive how Sainz was keeping Pérez behind him for such a long time, and even more impressive how Leclerc had no more than five laps of danger against Verstappen. A 1-2 finished was very deserved, and I don’t doubt that we’ll see races like this again this year.