"F1 feels in a better place" - Former driver welcomes Ferrari challenging for wins

Former F1 driver and TV pundit Martin Brundle has claimed the sport is in a better place as a result of Ferrari’s resurgence.

The Briton feels the Scuderia are genuinely on pace in 2022, unlike in previous years when they showed early signs of competitiveness only to fade as the season progressed. In his column for Sky Sports F1, he wrote:

“F1 feels in a better place when Ferrari are genuinely on the pace, unlike 2019 when there were fuelling question marks. They didn’t have to fight for last year’s championship thereby freeing up plenty of resource and focus for this new era, and the latest regulations designed to keep the tallest and best performing ‘sunflowers’ in the shade for a while mean that they have 10 per cent more aerodynamic development time than Mercedes. And they’ve used it very well.”

In addition to their impressive aerodynamic concepts, Brundle has praised the Scuderia’s power unit, saying:

“Judging by how well the Alfa Romeo and Haas teams went in Bahrain, along with their own one-two, then Ferrari have aced the power unit too.”

Despite F1 moving to 10 percent ethanol-based fuel in 2022, Ferrari made significant gains with their power unit. The new fuel was originally expected to cost manufacturers around 20hp in performance, but the Italian team seems to have clawed back that performance and more.

Meanwhile, Mercedes and Red Bull seem to be behind their Italian rivals in terms of peak power figures. With power units now homologated and frozen until 2026, the Scuderia and its customer teams will have an edge over rivals across the coming seasons.

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Ferrari reportedly ran their power unit in “conservative mode” in Bahrain GP

Ferrari reportedly ran their brand-new power unit in “conservative mode” at the 2022 season opener in Bahrain GP.

The Scuderia was concerned with reliability and wanted to evaluate the power unit before turning it up to its full potential. The insight comes courtesy of Italian daily Corriere dello Sport, which reported:

“In the first Grand Prix of the new season, the technicians from Maranello used the engine below its potential, so as not to approach in any way the limits of reliability before having well identified them.”

Furthermore, Maranello will reportedly continue to evaluate its power unit across the next few Grands Prix, gradually increasing its power until all its reliability concerns are addressed.

Despite running below its potential, the Scuderia's power unit was easily the most powerful at the 2022 Bahrain GP, trumping both Mercedes and Red Bull power. Their advantage on the straights and out of corners was such that they could afford to run the F1-75 at higher downforce levels compared to rivals.

This proved crucial in Charles Leclerc’s ability to defend against Max Verstappen’s attempts at snatching the lead, as the F1-75 proved much gentler on its tires compared to the Red Bull RB18.