The Kickoff to the Formula 1 Season

After the 2021 controversial and wildly popular season finale, many fans were eager to see the next season and the start of a new era of Formula 1. 

This next season of Formula 1 is featuring completely new cars in terms of design, powertrain, aerodynamics systems, and tires due to the new regulations that all teams must follow when creating a car imposed by the FIA which is the governing body of motorsport.

After pre-season testing sessions, it is hard to make accurate predictions based on car performance because most teams aren’t looking to show other teams their maximum pace. However, both Scuderia Ferrari and Red Bull Racing looked strong while AMG Petronas Mercedes Racing Team looked off the pace compared to the other teams. 

Some assumed the Mercedes Racing Team was employing the tactic known as sandbagging, when teams deliberately underperform in testing to hide the true performance of their car. There was also drama with American-based team Haas, because of their ties with their main sponsor Uralkali and their owner/oligarch Dmitry Mazepin. Dmitry is also the father of one of the drivers of Haas, Nikita Mazepin who was able to gain his seat because of the financial boost provided by his father. Dmitry, a Russian Oligarch, is being sanctioned by multiple governments around the world because of the invasion of Ukraine from Russia and his ties with Putin. This led to Haas replacing Nikita with another driver, Kevin Magnussen, who drove for the team from 2017-2020 with just one weekend of testing before the race week. This resulted in a lot of drama and uncertainty around the grid.

The first Grand Prix of the 73rd Formula 1 season happened last weekend, on March 18th, 2022, with two practice sessions, each lasting 90 minutes. Free Practice is when teams show a little more of the potential of their cars and do programs to test how the car reacts to long runs when they do a large number of continuous laps with a lot of fuel in the car and are closer to the actual race. Short runs are a light fuel load and the teams try to maximize their lap times, which is closer to the qualifying session. 

During these runs, they watch the data for the car brake temperatures, engine temperatures, tire wear/temperatures, and many other factors to try and gain as much information they can on how the car is reacting to the track and different conditions so they can have the best possible version of their car when they get to qualifying and the race. Although the times for the free practice sessions give a more accurate look into what kind of pace each car and driver has, nobody will know what these teams can give until the first qualifying session where they have to show their hand.

Qualifying in Formula 1 consists of three sessions on the Saturday of the Grand Prix weekend with the first session lasting 18 minutes, the second lasting 15 minutes, and the third and final session lasting 12 minutes. Each driver uses this time to set the fastest single lap times they can, and are ranked according to the fastest time. 

In the first session, the fastest 15 drivers move onto the second session, while the five slowest drivers are locked in for their grid position for the race on Sunday. It then moves to the second session in which only the 10 fastest drivers move on to the third session, and the 5 slowest of the session are locked into the positions, 11-15 for the race on Sunday. 

Finally, the third session is how the last 10 drivers determine their grid position for the race, all vying to be on pole position, or line up at the front of the grid. The Qualifying session in Bahrain was the first time we got to see these drivers push their new cars to the limit and there were many notable results. 

First, we saw how strong the Ferrari cars looked, with Charles Leclerc on pole position and Carlos Sainz his teammate finishing in third, giving Ferrari one of their strongest qualifying sessions in some time. 

The Mercedes cars looked well off the pace of the Ferrari and Red Bulls, and new addition to the team, George Russel, finished below former Mercedes driver, Valtteri Bottas who is in the Alfa Romeo F1 Team Orlen. 

The McLaren Racing Team car looked extremely slow, with Daniel Ricciardo qualifying in 18th and Lando Norris in 13th. Both were much further down than last year and where they were expected to be. Kevin Magnussen qualified in 7th for Haas and teammate Mick Schumacher in 12th, their best qualifying session in a few years and one that will give the team and especially Magnussen confidence going into the race and the year.

The first race of the 2022 Formula 1 season kicked off in Bahrain, with a fast start for Charles Leclerc who was able to fend off any overtake attempts from reigning World Champion Max Verstappen at the start of the race. 

Red Bull Driver Sergio Perez fell down the order on the opening lap but after about 10 laps was able to regain his fourth-place position. Esteban Ocon, who drives for Alpine, received an early five-second penalty for spinning Haas driver, Mick Schumacher. As Leclerc was building a bigger lead on Verstappen, Red Bull called in their driver for a pit stop to attempt an undercut., It’s a strategy that teams employ to give them an advantage of having fresher tires earlier to attempt to gain more track position on those ahead of them. 

However, Ferrari reacted quickly to this and pitted Leclerc to attempt to decrease any advantage Verstappen could gain on the undercut strategy and came out ahead of the Red Bull Driver. 

On lap 46, Pierre Gasly, Alpha Tauri driver, had a power failure and had to pull over to the side of the track and hop out of his car that had caught on flames at the rear. This meant a Safety Car would come out to control the pace for the cars left on the track. This allowed the stewards to safely remove Gasly’s car and resume the race with no debris on the track. 

During the safety car, Verstappen who was still in second place was reporting issues with his steering. Sadly for him, this would not be the last issue he had with his car. 

After the safety car entered the pits and the cars resumed racing, Leclerc and Verstappen were still battling until Verstappen lost power in his car and was forced to retire from the race. This left Carlos Sainz in second place and a Ferrari with a 1-2, or having both first and second place, with only a few laps remaining. 

This would not be the end of Red Bull's troubles as Perez was also forced into early retirement as his power unit died leading to his rear wheels locking up and spinning out of the race. This left their main rivals, Mercedes ahead and Lewis Hamilton and George Russel into third and fourth place respectively. 

The top 10 finishes were: 1st. Ferrari—Leclerc 2nd. Ferrari—Sainz 3rd. Mercedes—Hamilton 4th. Mercedes—Russell 5th. Haas—Magnussen 6th. Alfa Romeo—Bottas 7th. Alpine—Ocon 8th. Alpha Tauri—Tsunoda 9th. Alpine—Alonso 10th. Alfa Romeo—Zhou.

There was a flurry of reactions to the first race of the new era in Formula One. A weekend where Mercedes struggled to find the pace but still were able to snatch a podium spot, and 4th place at the expense of their rivals Red Bull, Haas having their best finish in a race since 2018. Ferrari was looking the strongest they have in two years, while they look to return to being a top team again. 

There was also the disappointing race weekend for McLaren which went from bad to worse, finishing in 14th and 15th. It looks to be a tough year for them and there will be a need for a lot of work on the car if they want to return to success. 

As this was just the first of 23 race weekends for the 2022 season, we can only hope the other 22 can reciprocate the action of the Bahrain GP.