With the new Formula 1 rules in the offing, it’s hard to predict what the natural grid order will look like for the 2022 season. However, according to Jonathan Wheatley , Red Bull’s sporting director, Ferrari could be one of the big threats to the Austrians .
Wheatley admitted on Jack Threlfall ‘s YouTube show that it was “very difficult to make predictions at this point” as you only have your own references compared to last year’s car.
“You can pick up little information from other teams, but you don’t know if they are telling you the truth or just trying to put you down,” said the member of the four-time world champion team.
Red Bull ‘s sporting director has Ferrari in particular in mind: “The power unit looked very strong at the end of the year. They were clearly the third fastest team, and they also have a great driver line-up.”
Initially unsure if Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz could work well together, Wheatley reveals: “It seems they’ve done very well, I think Ferrari will be the big unknown or possibly the big threat this year.”
After a difficult 2020 season that ended with a disappointing sixth in the constructors’ standings, Ferrari battled back to third last year with a new driver pairing, and an engine upgrade in the second half of the season.
If those from Maranello -or any other rival- climbed higher in the table in the new season, Wheatley would have no problem, because competitiveness is something that attracts him. “My idea of the perfect championship is for us to win, of course, but I would like to have a clean boxing match from the first race to the last.”
“I would like to have a fight every weekend. I would like to see six or eight drivers who can win a race, and in the end it all comes down to who does the best in the championship over 23 races.
Although the Red Bull man insists: “Don’t get me wrong, it would be great to dominate and win 23 races! But my ideal championship is the one where you are exhausted at the end of the year, but you have achieved something extraordinary.”
Red Bull hopes for more consistency in decisions
The Austrian team won the drivers’ championship in 2021 with Max Verstappen, although the achievement of the title was accompanied by the controversy that surrounded what happened at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Wheatley is in favor of the investigation initiated by the FIA and hopes that there will be more consistency in decisions in the future.
“It is really important that the FIA carries out its investigation, works with the teams and we all follow the result of that investigation,” he stresses.
At the same time, Wheatley says: “It’s a very, very difficult role for the race director and the stewards. It’s about consistency of decisions, first and foremost, at all levels. It’s like football, you want see logical decisions of the referee, and it is not always like that”.
In this context, the Red Bull sporting director also sees a certain discrepancy between the “great general philosophy of ‘let them race'”, which is nothing more than a racing idea, and the “black and white rules”.
“They often prescribe very precisely the sentence to be imposed. There is no wiggle room,” Wheatley said. “I think these aspects of the sport need to be decided at the highest level. The World Motor Sport Council has to say: ‘These are the principles we race by’.”
“Then it is up to the FIA and the teams to work together to ensure a consistent set of sporting rules,” concluded the Austrian team member.
