Last year, Max Verstappen became Formula 1 World Champion for the first time after a first to last race battle against Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes. A rivalry that will be remembered for many years to come.
Initially, the 2022 Formula 1 season also promised to be an intense fight for the title: in the first races, Red Bull and Ferrari shared the victories, but the Austrian team’s reliability problems favored the Maranello company.
Now, after the ninth race of the season, the Canadian Grand Prix, where Max Verstappen took his fifth win in the last six races, the situation is very different. In fact, the only victory he didn’t get was that of his teammate, the Mexican Sergio Perez, who climbed to the top step of the podium in Monaco.
The Guadalajara native is now Verstappen’s closest challenger in the drivers’ championship, with 46 points behind. Checo took over from Charles Leclerc: the Ferrari driver won two of the first three races and was comfortably in the lead at the time, but is now 49 points behind.
However, in the last four races he was forced to retire in two of them, both when he was in the lead, due to reliability problems which, combined with the penalty that saw him starting from the last row of the grid in the Canadian GP and all ‘mistake of strategy in Monaco, have seriously affected his chances of the title.
Given the recent form of both teams, former Formula 1 owner Bernie Ecclestone does not expect Ferrari and Leclerc to be real contenders for the World title, either as constructors or as drivers.
“Like many others, I was sure that Ferrari would be world champions again after fourteen years. But now I have to say that anyone who has bet on Ferrari or Leclerc will go home empty-handed,” Ecclestone told Blick.
“Errors begin to occur in Ferrari, reliability often reminds us of the past and the drivers themselves are not always confident when they are on the track. So Max has an easy life and this has translated into six wins,” concluded the British veteran.
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