With the first four races of the 2022 Formula 1 season disputed, everything seems to indicate that Ferrari and Red Bull are the great favorites to win the title and, except for a major surprise, no other team will be able to interfere in a battle that to date has not could have been more even.
Despite the lack of reliability that has ruined some good results for the energy drink team in these first Grands Prix, the Austrian team is in second place in the constructors’ standings with 113 points, 11 points less than the Italians.
However, Red Bull seems to have a great ace up its sleeve that would explain the calm that the team’s top managers have maintained in these first races when they have been forced to leave or even when they have been overtaken on the track by Charles Leclerc or Carlos Sainz.
Since they landed at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, the Milton Keynes almost threw stones at their own roof explaining that they would not be one of the candidates for the title due to the large amount of extra weight that the RB18 had, far exceeding the weight minimum of F1 single-seaters in 2022.
Taking advantage of the fact that they were not the only team that suffered from overweight, Red Bull , with the help of other teams, managed to reach an agreement with F1 and the FIA to increase the minimum weight established by the regulations, which had already passed 752 to 795 kilos, up to 798 kilos, but that doesn’t seem to have been enough either, because in recent weeks they have insisted on increasing it even more.
This is a clear example of the clear problem that they are going through with the overweight of their F1 and that, on the other hand, leaves them in a very good position, since despite having a deficit that could easily translate into a few tenths lost in the time per lap, they have managed to stand up to Ferrari and fight one on one or even clearly surpass them, as happened in Imola.
Although it is true that those from Maranello have recognized that they have not been able to reach or come close to the minimum weight limit of the 2022 single-seaters, it is known by all that their deficit is much lower than that of Red Bull, so the room for maneuver for the energy drink team in much greater in this regard.
Due to this and as the Milton Keynes team manage to develop the RB18 , everything seems to indicate that they will take steps forward in terms of weight, achieving an improvement that Ferrari obviously does not have within their reach and that would put them in a beneficial situation of facing the second part of the season or the last races of the course.
