Leclerc ends Ferrari’s 45-race winless run:

Charles Leclerc ended Ferrari’s 45 race winless run by winning the opening race of the new era regulations as Carlos Sainz completed a Ferrari one-two. Red Bull suffered a double DNF gifting Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton the final podium spot.

By Malhaar Khaladkar

London, 21 March 2022: A complete overhaul of regulations, new drivers and promise of closer racing meant this was a hotly-anticipated season opener in recent history. Pole position for Ferrari on Saturday was claimed by Charles Leclerc on reigning world champion Max Verstappen, as both lined up on the front row. Excitement was at its highest as Ferrari had seemingly moved to the front of the grid with world champions Mercedes slipping back.

The race got off to a clean start as Leclerc and Verstappen maintained their positions. Carlos Sainz stayed in P3 as Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton made up a position to run in P4. Red Bull’s second driver Sergio Perez slipped from P4 to P6. Between the two ran F1 returnee Kevin Magnussen in the Haas. Valtteri Bottas, who had qualified in P6 for his new team Alfa Romeo had a bad getaway and fell to P14 by end of lap 1.

Hamilton was chasing Sainz’s Ferrari as Perez remained behind the two. Hamilton lost DRS as Sainz pulled away due to the Ferrari F1-75 naturally being faster than the Mercedes W13. On lap 9, Perez passed the Briton as Hamilton was defenceless against the faster Red Bull. Meanwhile, teammate George Russell had slotted into P6.

Hamilton was the first to pit out of anyone, seemingly tyre degradation on the new 18-inch Pirelli tyres was higher than anticipated. Mercedes chose the hard tyres for the 7-time Formula 1 world champion. Of the leaders, Verstappen pitted first hoping to undercut, putting on another set of soft tyres on lap 14. Ferrari responded duly on the next lap by bringing in Leclerc for soft tyres, mirroring the reigning world champion. As Leclerc emerged out of the pit lane his lead was slashed from 3.5s to 0.3s, Verstappen right on his heels.

Verstappen made a move on Leclerc on lap 17, using DRS to slingshot past in turn 1, only for the Ferrari driver to return the favour by using DRS at turn 4. Exactly same scenario took place on lap 18 as well. On lap 19 Verstappen again dived down the inside of Leclerc at turn 1, this time locking up his front wheels and going deep. The Monegasque passing him again, this time way before they reached turn 4. Verstappen backed off as he tried to cool his brakes and tyres.Hamilton pitted again as the hard tyres were too slow, this time choosing mediums and emerging in a net P5. Russell seemed to mirror new teammate Hamilton’s strategy.

Verstappen made his second pitstop on lap 30, going for the medium tyres. Leclerc once again responded on the next lap y doing the same, this time though emerging with a comfortable lead with Verstappen out of the crucial 1s window. Meanwhile both Sainz and Perez pitted on lap 33 to run P3 and P4 respectively. Sainz and Perez pitted for the third time on lap 43 for soft tyres to make it to the end of the race. With nothing to lose and a large gap to the cars behind, Verstappen pitted too on lap 43 for soft tyres. The Mercedes cars responding as well, with Hamilton pitting on lap 44 and Russell on lap 45, both for soft tyres. Leclerc was left with a choice to make, with a large enough gap to Verstappen to pit and emerge in the lead or go to the end of the grand prix.

Leclerc had his answer on lap 46, as Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri spat flames from the back of the car making him the first retiree of the season. A Honda sourced Red Bull powertrain engine having issues was bad omen for the rest of the race. Leclerc pitted for soft tyres on lap 46 as the safety car was called out. During the SC period Verstappen complained of power steering issues making it harder to drive the car with Red Bull telling him to keep out and retire if only it gets worse.

By the time safety car came to the pits everyone was on the soft tyre. On the restart Leclerc pulled away with Verstappen struggling. Seemingly now Sainz was trying to hunt for P2. Behind, Hamilton was trying to chase Perez for P4. Suddenly Verstappen slowed down before the final corner on lap 54 as he lost power and trundled back to the pits, out of the race. It promoted Sainz to P2 with Hamilton chasing Perez for P3 now. On the final lap as the leaders made their wayround turn 1, Perez lost power, locking his rear axle and spinning around, both Red Bull cars out of the race with Hamilton on the podium against all odds.

Leclerc capped of a fantastic win with Sainz coming home for a Ferrari one-two. Hamilton achieved his 183^rd career podium as teammate Russell finished in P4. Magnussen finished in P5, Haas scoring points for the first time since 2020 Hungarian GP. Bottas finished P6 in Alfa Romeo with rookie teammate Zhou Guanyu scoring points on debut as he finished in P10. Alpine too got a double points result as Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso crossed the line in P7 and P9 respectively. AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda achieving P8, the sole point scorer for any Red Bull powertrain powered cars.

Mick Schumacher finished just outside the points for Haas ahead of Lance Stroll in the Aston Martin in P12 and another F1 returnee Alex Albon in the Williams in P13. McLaren endured a horrible race as Daniel Ricciardo finished in P14 ahead of teammate Lando Norris in P15. Williams’ Nicholas Latifi finishing in P16 ahead of “super-sub” Nico Hulkenberg in P17 who subbed in for the unwell Sebastian Vettel at Aston Martin.

Ferrari and Red Bull look to have the strongest car going to these new era regulations. Qualifying was close but race pace wise Ferrari seemed to have the advantage. Ferrari’s advantage also coming from a new engine which works well at low-speed traction and power delivery to the rear wheels. Red Bull will be worried about the reliability problems. First one with Gasly is still being investigated while Red Bull seemed to think problems for Verstappen and Perez were both similar in nature. With F1 back to racing in a week it remains to be seen if they will be able to identify and fix these problems. Mercedes were a clear third in terms of pace, lacking around 0.5s to the leaders both in qualifying and race pace. The team said it is looking ways to cut down drag on the W13 a that is what held them back. They are also looking to fix porpoising which has plagued the car since its hit the track, making them lose performance.

Haas and Alfa Romeo have made a step forward as they looked to have a clear advantage on the rest of the field behind them. Both being Ferrari powered cars, the engine has been a significant part in helping them overtake their rivals. Alpine and AlphaTauri looked closely matched but it is too early in the season to judge who has a clear advantage over who.

McLaren have been the biggest team to fall off the leaders in these new rules as the team and drivers admitted the car lacks overall downforce compared to its competitors. That compounded with brake cooling issues that limited their testing time means the Woking squad are on a backfoot going into the rest of the season. Aston Martin have suffered porpoising issues as well, with the team admitting they have lost around 0.75s just by running a higher ride height to avoid porpoising. Williams look to be last in the field as they were on average 2-2.5s off the pace of the leaders.

With these new cars, the development curve is very steep with the engineers experimenting to get these cars working at their peak level. With such a steep development curve we can expect a lot of new upgrades on them hence, changing the pecking order of the field race by race.

Saturday Qualifying Results were: