inUncategorized

5 Talking Points Ahead Of The Emilia Romagna GP

This weekend, the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola will see the drivers continue their pursuit of the Formula 1 world title, but it also comes with an added twist of it being the first Sprint weekend of 2022.

Here are some of the talking points ahead of this weekend in Imola.

  1. Ferrari is the favorite on home soil.

 

Charles Leclerc had a dream start to the season at the first race of the year; he has collected two wins, two pole positions, a second-place, and all three fastest lap points. It gives him a significant advantage in the championship already.

Although Leclerc can afford to fail to score this weekend, he will be looking to put on a show in front of Ferrari’s home crowd. The Monegasque driver won the second race of his career at Monza back in 2019 on a particular day for him, but on that occasion, he wasn’t in a title fight.

This year’s visit to Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari comes with Leclerc, now the clear title favorite. Ferrari has marked themselves out as the team to beat with a dominant victory in Melbourne. In front of a capacity crowd, it’s going to be some atmosphere as he goes for a third win from four.

2. The first sprint of the year

 

While we’ve seen plenty of exciting racing from the opening three rounds, there’s, even more to come this weekend as the Sprint makes its first appearance in 2022. After a successful trial last year, another three race weekends will host the Sprint during the coming season. First up is Imola, with the fastest driver from Friday’s qualifying session is deemed to have secured pole position for the weekend by being the fastest over one lap.

The Sprint race winner on Saturday will start first on the grid for Sunday’s Grand Prix. However, due to a points system change, drivers will score points for how they finish in both races. The top eight drivers will now score points from eight points for the race winner to a single point for eighth place.

3. Alpine’s Emergence As Underdogs

Alpine’s hopes for a strong result in Australia were dashed after their drivers fell victim to unfortunate circumstances. On Friday, Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon looked particularly competitive and continued that form into qualifying. Alonso’s first timed attempt was evolving into an awe-inspiring one, with the Spaniard claiming he was in the fight for pole position.

Then, just as he entered Turn 11, his car submerged and brought his lap to an early end, with the team ultimately deciding to retire him from the session. Then, on Sunday, Alonso’s race came to an even more devastating end when an issue with his car’s hydraulics forced him off the road on Lap 4 during a Safety Car period. From 10th on the grid, he was unfortunate enough to be affected by another Safety Car period two laps later and saw a potential recovery into the points slip away.

He could have finished in the top five if he had been running behind just one Safety Car and thus able to follow its pace instead of taking evasive action while trying to catch it. Alonso also lamented what he felt could have been a strong weekend performance.

In seventh, Ocon matched his worst result of the season so far, showing just how consistently he’s been performing in the first three races of 2022. But the Frenchman was frustrated by the traffic he encountered on track, which he said prevented him from being able to challenge the two McLarens ahead of him.

Both drivers felt they didn’t get the results on offer in Australia – or in Saudi Arabia, too, in Alonso’s case – but there’s no doubting that the Alpine is a strong car with the potential to lead the midfield when it all comes together. They might even have enough pace to challenge Mercedes as defending champions continue to struggle with their 2022 car.

  1. McLaren’s resurgence or false dawn?

 

In Bahrain, McLaren had a shocker. Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo failed to score and were battling at the back of the field. There was progress in Saudi Arabia, where Norris finished seventh, and then a big step forward in Australia as both cars came home in the top six after reaching Q3. However, there was a note of caution given how they expected Melbourne to suit their car’s characteristics.

The big questions are whether McLaren’s performance at Imola was due to the circuit layout or whether they have found ways of getting more speed out of their car that will also be effective at other tracks. Their fourth place in the constructors’ championship is misleading because it reflects a better-than-expected showing at Imola, but we should find out more about McLaren’s potential at Imola.

  1. Red Bull’s reliability struggles

1391171759

While Bahrain and Jeddah (a city in Saudi Arabia) saw Ferrari and Red Bull closely matched, Melbourne did not follow the same form book—Melbourne is a city in Australia—as Leclerc dominated proceedings from the front. But Max Verstappen was still set to pick up a solid 18 points in second place until his car developed a fuel system issue and retired from the race.

With both Red Bulls retiring from the season opener when they were in podium positions, those two cars have combined for just three finishes from six starts, and all three retirements were related to the fuel system. Team Principal Christian Horner says it was a different issue that stopped Verstappen in Australia compared to the failures in Bahrain, but either way, they are proving costly.

After the first three races of the season, Verstappen is 46 points behind Leclerc in the Drivers’ Championship, which will be a big gap to close without some misfortune befalling championship leader Leclerc. And Red Bull is also only third in the Constructors’ Championship after their early woes. They will be hoping for better reliability as quickly as possible before the early frustrations evolve into a much bigger problem.

 

#Formula1ALPINECharles LeclercEMIILIA ROMAGNOFERRARIHAMILTONMotorSportREDBULL RACINGSergio Perez

Written by John N

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Red Bull finds cause of Verstappen failure

F1 Sprint:The format explained ahead of Imola GP