Why Red Bull and Ferrari really start as F1’s early 2022 ‘favourites’

The business of predicting outcomes based on testing results fraught with peril. But while Red Bull ended Bahrain's pre-season test on top, it appears to have different company at the front of the new ‘favourites’ group, with Ferrari enjoying a strong start to its 2022 campaign and Mercedes seemingly off the pace. But the reasons why are deeper than the headline times suggest

Alex Kalinauckas Mar 13, 2022, 12:13 AM

Upd: Mar 13, 2022, 10:41 AM

He came out of the final corner poised to show exactly what he could do on the softest tyres Pirelli has produced for the coming campaign. He’d treated them carefully through the warm-up lap around the abrasive 3.36-miles of the Bahrain International Circuit. It was close to the same conditions as qualifying will be in the season opener, now just around the corner. He is the Formula 1 world champion; the rest must chase.

Then came sudden, unexpected disaster. The rears lit up suddenly and around he went. This was Lewis Hamilton at the very end of pre-season testing in 2021, but exactly the same thing happened to Max Verstappen in 2022.

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Author Alex Kalinauckas

Alex Kalinauckas is Autosport's Grand Prix Editor, covering every Formula 1 race since the start of 2020. After completing a master's degree in journalism at Goldsmiths College University of London in 2014, he worked for a range of motorsport and technology publications while covering national racing as an Autosport freelancer.

A lifelong motorsport fan - no one in his family can explain quite how or why such a development first occurred - Alex joined the Autosport staff in April 2017 as the magazine’s Assistant Editor covering Formula 2 and GP3, before being made Formula E correspondent and Autosport.com’s Plus Editor in March 2018. He lives in north-east London and is constantly frustrated by the Central Line.