Karma Or Bad Luck Hits Red Bull As Ferrari Dominate First Race Of The 2022 Season

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Refreshing start to the new season and great to see Ferrari doing well again. Any sport needs competition and having 3 manufacturers fighting for the title will be great viewing. Mercedes will fix their gremlins and be competitive very soon.

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Last year Haas scored 0 points and in 2018 scored 56 in total so today was an excellent haul for the team with no Russian influence involved.

This afternoon/evening we saw the first Formula One Grand Prix of the season being held in Bahrain. What is always interesting to note is how the various teams have faired with the development of their cars due to them having to have new specifications. last year these were put on hold due to the monetary caps in place plus the FIA wanting to introduce an 18 inch tyre for safety reasons.

The teams were involved in testing two weeks ago and from that we knew Ferrari were strong alongside Red Bull. Mercedes had some issues they need to sort out along with Aston Martin and McLaren. Haas and Alfa Romeo are no longer the joke teams and are very competitive this season from all accounts so far. Reliability was what most teams were worried about as testing is testing and this is racing.

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Lap 57/57 and Perez engine seizes and thus no points today for Red Bull.

Todays race basically reaffirmed everything that we knew already with Mercedes trialing by roughly 1 second per lap to Ferrari who clearly have the strongest package. Red Bull are not far off, but they have engine issues which led to both Verstappen and Perez failing to finish along with their sister team losing Pierre Gasly. These were major malfunctions which lead to Perez seizing his engine on the penultimate lap forcing his car to spin. Gasly's car went up in flames and Max lost all power. The rule of 3 engines per season before penalties are applied looks ominous already as that is 1 engine each that needs replacing already on race 1.

What I found interesting today was watching the Red Bull chief designer, Adrian Newey paying close attention to the Ferrari car parked on the grid. Everyone is trying to gleam as much information from each other as possible as finding a fraction of a second is all it takes between first and the rest. He was obviously looking for something in particular as they have all seen photos of each others cars and him walking by was no accident as he was verifying something.

The way last season ended and by the manner in which it happened it couldn't have happened to a nicer team. The FIA's released verdict happened yesterday and they placed it on human error which we all know is not the case as rules were broken. Funny how that same rule was applied today and we have seen it so many times before with the only exception of Abu Dhabi. One doesn't have to be a genius to see the truth and has damaged the sports reputation in so many ways.

Some will say it is karma what happened today and others will say it is bad luck and most likely is a bit of both. Red Bull have loads to do before the next race in 7 days time and who knows if they are an easy fix or not. They have the expertise as the team poached a number of top Mercedes engineers last year.

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Next week will be more interesting as the teams have their hands full this week fixing the problems they have. Mercedes have a bouncing/porpoising car which is not a quick fix plus their engines need more power. Red Bull is all about the engine and hydraulics. Mclaren/Aston Martin is a list and have no hope of being competitive by next week. Haas and Alfa Romeo are more about the same and time to party as this is way above their wildest dreams.