At the start of the season in Bahrain, all eyes were on Mercedes’ problems. Meanwhile, Ferrari turned heads with an impressive all-round package that somehow managed to avoid the now characteristic porpoising of 2022 cars without sacrificing too much performance.
Behind the three biggest teams, Haas and Alfa Romeo seemed to have leapt ahead of the rest of the midfield, with McLaren and Aston Martin being the big disappointments at the start of the season.
While McLaren managed to resolve its brake overheating problems and struggled to get back to where the car’s inherent performance allows it to be, Aston Martin pinned its hopes on a B specification which was dubbed ‘Red Bull Green’, due to its similarities with the RB18.
In the early races, however, all the midfield entrants seemed to grow closer to each other, as they overcame some teething problems and set-up quirks coupled with an entirely new concept car.
However, rather than following a predictable pattern like at the end of 2021, when McLaren were clearly the fourth-best team after losing to Ferrari, it remains to be seen how the midfield battle will play out in 2022, with performances to follow. ranging widely from weekend to weekend.
“It’s hard to predict at the moment, in terms of competitiveness,” McLaren boss Andreas Seidl said. “We have taken a good step forward in Barcelona. We have solved some weak points that the car had.”
“At the same time, a lot of other single-seaters did too. Baku and Montreal are again different circuits, so I think it’s very difficult to predict. This year, we’ve seen big changes in the standings and that’s why I’m very cautious about to make predictions.
“Our objective is clear, we want to fight for that fourth position in the championship, I think we have everything in the team, together with Lando [Norris] and Daniel [Ricciardo] , to do it. We know that the rivals are not going to stay still, so we have to make sure we continue to develop this car as well.”
McLaren was one of many teams to introduce a sizeable upgrade package at Barcelona, as did Alfa Romeo . But while the team from Hinwil, one of the structures full of surprises in 2022, qualified in a solid sixth place in Spain with Valtteri Bottas, the Finn was somewhat confused. He had been only a tenth quicker than Kevin Magnussen, whose team had not ridden anything new in the Haas.
As explained by Guenther Steiner , the team’s head, at the time, it made sense for the team to use the well-known Barcelona track as a test bed to delve into the current Haas package and really understand its strengths and weaknesses, in instead of adding parts without having a good understanding of what the car really needed.
“You bring the updates to Barcelona because you know the circuit, but I was thinking, ok, you know the circuit, so it’s a good time to get the best out of this car,” Steiner said.
“If we had brought updates we wouldn’t have understood them and maybe even been slower instead of faster. So we’ve used this to get the best out of this car, so [for] the next race I hope we can keep that base and then we will bring the updates”.
It remains to be seen when Haas introduces its updates, as the Monaco GP was an unusual race and so are the upcoming races in Baku and Montreal. July’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone will be the next ‘traditional’ circuit with high-speed corners that requires an excellent all-round package.
Steiner also points out that bringing upgrades doesn’t guarantee performance right out of the garage. The budget cap means that teams are limited in the number of upgrades they can fit into a car, which means that each part is carefully considered and is expected to provide the greatest reduction in lap time possible.
But it can still take a long time to get the most out of the updates, especially as the current succession of street circuits makes it harder to gauge progress.
With teams continuing to maximize their upgrades at the Spanish GP and others, such as Haas, introducing parts later on, the landscape of the midfield could change dramatically again in the coming weeks, setting up a hectic and fascinating six-race series. until the arrival of the summer break.
“It’s still very early days with these new cars, you’ve seen how it can swing from track to track,” added Seidl. “Most of the teams have updated their cars for Barcelona. Monaco was obviously a very specific track, and what that all means now, the updates that everyone brought for these upcoming circuits, to be honest, that’s impossible to predict. “.
“And also, we must not forget that the competition is so tough, that one or two tenths up or down means that instead of being in a position to fight for P7 or P8, suddenly you are P13, P14.”
AlphaTauri chief technology officer Jody Egginton , whose team has been thrust into the fray at various points over the first seven races, says the steep development curve of 2022 will continue to throw up surprises, such as Alfa Romeo having been nowhere in Monaco despite his much vaunted slow-speed prowess.
“I think there have been some ups and downs in the mid zone. In Spain, we were in mid zone qualifying at a lower position than normal. But before that, our car seemed reasonably consistent to us,” he said.
“The order changed again [in Monaco]. A lot of people were suggesting that the Alfa Romeos could be especially strong, and they had a difficult weekend.
“I think part of it is that we’re still learning about the car. The car we unveiled [earlier in the year] was a million miles away from where we are now, so the pace of development is quite fast at the moment. And the characteristics of the car in the first test in Spain were very different from those in the race.”
“I think it’s just the collective learning of where we’re going with the car. But yeah, within the middle zone, there are a lot more changes in qualifying.
Such is the fickle nature of the midfield, that even with all the teams having had both good and bad weekends, just 19 points separate McLaren, Alfa Romeo and Alpine in the battle for fourth place, with AlphaTauri, Haas and Aston Martin trying to catch up and catch up.
Steiner felt that some of the credit for the convergence of the midfield should also go to F1’s budget cap , which has come under pressure from bigger teams advocating for it to be raised to cover rising expenses in 2022.
“You can see that the midfield has come together a lot,” Steiner said. “McLaren was strong in a few races and then it didn’t go anywhere and then all of a sudden the Alpines were strong in one race. It’s getting mixed up.”
“In the medium and long term I think it will get even closer, but therefore we should not now change the budget cap and raise it, because this is really good for the races in the middle zone. Now you never know who is the best of the rest”.
“The Alfa Romeo in Barcelona was by far the best in my opinion, but the one from three races ago wasn’t that good, so it’s changing a lot.”
“And I think if we stick to the budget cap, we’ll get even closer to the big guys.”
Although McLaren is emerging as the favorite to be fourth again this year, the team from Woking cannot be accommodated yet.
