The 2022 Formula One season has surpassed the third point after Max Verstappen’s victory at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix last weekend. That leaves the Dutchman with a 21-point lead over teammate Sergio Perez, which is an impressive turn out of the 46 he had in arrears of his rival Charles Leclerc after the third round in Australia.
Much of this swing comes from the recent implosion of Ferrari. This continued in a third race thanks to the expiration of Leclerc’s engine just as it seemed an acute decision to get under the virtual security car, caused by Carlos Sainz’s nightmare of reliability in the other F1-75, the he had fought for victory again after losing. to Pérez at the beginning.
Leclerc’s last point loss is the key to Baku, but last weekend there were many other stories worth paying attention to. So here are 10 things we learned from the 2022 Azerbaijan GP.
Carlos Sainz returns to his garage after retiring from the race
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
1. Ferrari’s reliability concerns are huge
“I would rather have a good performance and try to fix the reliability instead of the other way around,” Ferrari team leader Mattia Binotto said after the Baku race.
Make no mistake, but the fragility of Ferrari’s engine has not only cost Leclerc at least 43 points in two of the last three races, plus the 13 he lost when he fell from pole to fourth in the strategic chaos of Monaco . It means that it will almost certainly face network sanctions related to the engine later in 2022, as it already has the maximum limit only for turbo parts.
At the time of writing, Ferrari cannot say what caused the Leclerc engine problem in Baku, but it is understood that it is separated from the fall of Sainz’s car with a hydraulic problem. Zhou Guanyu’s removal of Ferrari’s power unit was attributed to a team-specific cooling problem at Alfa Romeo, but Kevin Magnussen’s Haas also stopped on Sunday. Scuderia.
At least it’s fast, and Leclerc seemed to be having an easier time than expected in the face of Red Bull’s straight-line dexterity with the “powerless” (lower drag) rear wing that Ferrari had introduced but didn’t run in Miami. His pace after the pit stop, where problems with front and back cats cost Leclerc time, was strong. But whether it was enough to face and prevail against Verstappen, whether wheel to wheel at the end of the race with a brave one stop or an aggressive two stoppers to get back to the media, will never be known.
Max Verstappen celebrates his victory among the shining ribbon
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
2. Verstappen reaffirms Red Bull’s 2022 narrative, but still not entirely happy on RB18
While the last three races have been for Verstappen considering Leclerc’s various and many problems, things could have been even better. It focuses mainly on Monaco, where history was dominated by the impressive recovery of Pérez from the line of team orders in Spain.
But if it weren’t for his teammate crashing in Q3, it’s conceivable that Verstappen would have gone on to qualify ahead of Perez, even if Leclerc was untouchable in pole position. Perez’s good form continued in the standings in Baku, where he broke the intra-Red Bull qualifying record by 5-3 at Verstappen, even after the drama of the late fire ruined his final career plans.
Verstappen is still not happy with the understeer trends of the RB18, which are especially exposed on the street lanes and which Pérez loves. This means that Verstappen does not have the ultimate car balance it is looking for for the fastest laps of each weekend.
But the performance of the world champion Baku race was brilliant. He kept his average tires in better shape and warm enough at first and during the first VSC, then left in the tough ones to win at over 20 years old. As much as Perez has been in 2022, Verstappen has been generally better and by a fairly large margin.
Leclerc has dazzled in the standings, but needs more than Ferrari in the race
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
3. Leclerc can keep this fight for the title interesting
Although it will not be so comfortable for Leclerc considering how things have gone from Australia, the Monegasque rider has so far achieved an impressive classification record in 2022. Now he not only has the only 8-0 classification. in front of a teammate, but so far has not been ranked below the second.
Leclerc’s qualifying performance in Baku was sensational for the second year in a row, as he jumped between the walls with impressive commitment and precision, nailing the evolution of the track and the change in grip level as the temperature dropped during prolonged classification. Taking similar risks did for Sainz’s challenge and Leclerc was there to capitalize on when the late third-quarter refueling drama collapsed Red Bull’s towing plan. But the fact that the former championship leader ran alone and therefore without a trailer made his pole vault even more impressive.
Things could change in Ferrari’s title bet, but Red Bull’s recent way to improve for a season will be hard to beat even with Verstappen’s theoretically discounted great tenacity. But if Leclerc can continue to qualify at the top, at least that will force Red Bull to make a run of every event and cheer on what could end up being a simpler title challenge than it seemed after the first few rounds.
All smiles for Russell and Hamilton, but for how long?
Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images
4. The first chapter of Russell vs. Hamilton is not over yet
Another team with a 5-3 face-to-face ranking record is Mercedes (Pierre Gasly also leads Yuki Tsunoda by the same record at AlphaTauri), with George Russell at the helm of teammate Lewis Hamilton. Although the 2022 season has been far from the campaign planned for either driver due to the ongoing W13 porpoise problem (more on that later), Russell is Silver Arrows’ top driver in qualifying betting is still a unexpected result so far considering that Hamilton is statistically the best ranked in F1.
Mercedes explained that much of the difference of 0.2 seconds between the pair in the Baku classification was due to Hamilton performing a floor upgrade that did not work as expected, combined with the configuration options of the wings that did not bear fruit and that Russell benefited from getting the trailers of the classification at that time. event.
In the race, Russell was relatively quiet in his third-place race once the Ferraris retired, meaning he is now three podiums behind Hamilton. Meanwhile, the seven-time world champion had to produce a series of passes to Esteban Ocon, Daniel Ricciardo and both AlphaTauris after an early double-stack stop where he was jumped by Sebastian Vettel.
Eight races in progress and Russell is seriously impressive to Mercedes, even in such harsh circumstances for the team, which, to be clear, is not an excavation in Hamilton, but a simple summary of the facts. Circumstances have occurred, but a driver can only offer them and Russell really is right now. Soon we will know if this is the story of his first season in Mercedes, or just the first act.
The long straight caused some of the cars to bounce out of control
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
5. The porpoise hurts drivers …
One of the true stories of the season is the porpoise problem, which is affecting cars on the net to varying degrees. Although he has been there since the days leading up to pre-season filming, Baku’s weekend was dominated by talk of the pain of some drivers in longer stays as a result of their cars repeatedly crashing. at top speed.
Mercedes drivers, in particular, were struggling, with Hamilton making a radio call shortly before halfway through the race to say, “My back is killing me.” But even McLaren, which has been pretty porcelain-free so far in 2022, bounced back as “being professionally dribbled by Stephen Curry,” in a colorful way, by Daniel Ricciardo.
The problem was exacerbated in Baku by the high-speed nature of the track, which meant that the car’s suspensions were rapidly at full compression and therefore when the numerous surface blows were struck along and fast final sector, there was nothing more. And so the energy was transferred to the driver’s bodies even more than usual.
Gasly said pilots should ask the FIA to “find solutions to prevent us from ending up with a cane at 30”. That, combined with Russell, suggests “it’s a recipe for disaster,” “it’s only a matter of time before we see a major incident,” and “I don’t think we can keep it for three years or as long as these regulations apply.” during “It meant that the issue would take on an important political element.
While Russell said Mercedes was not generally in favor of a rule change, it is a hot topic, as doing so could benefit the performance of some teams’ cars and hurt others.
With the Mercedes bouncing straight, Lewis Hamilton struggled with a severe back pain
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
6.… but it is far from clear how it could be solved
It was remarkable how, once the pilots had started conveying their opinion on the subject before the race, there was a certain amount of information in the media on the subject of the porpoise. None of this solves the problem, but it serves to highlight how divided the paddock is on the subject.
The serious porpoise in Baku was raised at the drivers’ briefing, with subsequent reports suggesting that Fernando Alonso was the only one who resisted the problem (although to be clear it was not indicated as a unanimous statement by the driver would have caused no change).
This should be read in line with the understanding, driven by certain sectors, that a proposal to change the rule in the 2022 regulations would have been abandoned, which would have led to cars running higher than they currently are. because…