Red Bull and Mercedes were comfortably the top two teams in the 2021 season, but that could change in 2022.
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Red Bull Racing’s sporting director Jonathan Wheatley believes Ferrari will be the 2022 Formula 1 season’s ‘big unknown’ as well as a threat to the top teams.
Red Bull and Mercedes were comfortably the top two teams in the 2021 season, but that could change in 2022.
This is because the sweeping regulation changes could well play a role in disrupting the existing order of teams.
And, according to Wheatley, it is hard to predict at present just how other teams’ cars are going to be for the coming season.
“I think it’s very difficult to predict at this point; you only have your own references compared with last year’s car,” Wheatley told The Jack Threlfall Show.
“You can get snippets of information from other teams, but you don’t know if they’re telling you the truth, or just trying to make you make worried.
“Basically, you have to look at your own office desk and you have to do the best job that you possibly can with that.”
“Ferrari – certainly the power unit – looked to be very strong at the end of the year; they were clearly the third-fastest team at the end of the year.
“They’ve got a great driver line-up, as well. I wasn’t sure about whether they would gel together as drivers, but they seem to have done that very well.
“I think Ferrari are going to be the big unknown, or possibly the big threat this year.”
Max Verstappen won the world driver’s championship in 2021 after a hard-fought battle with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton.
It was seen as one of the best title fights in many years by fans and experts alike. Yet, according to Wheatley, he would prefer a championship where more drivers had a chance of winning.
“My idea of the perfect World Championship is the one that we win, obviously!” Wheatley laughed.
“But I would like a bare-knuckle boxing fight from the first race to the last; I would like to have fighting every weekend.
“I would like to see, six, eight drivers capable of winning a race and it all comes down to who can string a championship together over 23 races.
“Who can make the fewest mistakes? Who can put the most competitive car down on the most weekends? Who can capitalise on those strategic calls at the last minute?
“Don’t get me wrong, it would be great to dominate [and] win 23 races a year! But my ideal championship is one where you’re exhausted at the end of the year, but that you’ve achieved something extraordinary.”
