Formula One is back, and so are Ferrari - A Bahrain roundup as we head to Saudi Arabia

The opening weekend of the season in Bahrain has now drawn to a close, and we have learned a lot about the new era of Formula One.

The 2022 season of Formula One arrived in spectacular style, with more wheel-to-wheel racing in one race than we have seen in the previous Turbo-Hybrid era.

Formula One opened the season in Bahrain, where the likes of Ferrari and McLaren were hopeful that they would be able to compete at the top end of the field with Mercedes and Red Bull after the massive regulation change that arrived at the end of the 2021 season.

However, the opening race didn't quite go to plan for some teams but, for others, it was a weekend to remember.

For the Scuderia Ferrari, the opening race of the season was like a trip to the past. A race of absolute domination saw the Scuderia wipe the floor with their opposition and take their first win and 1-2 finish since the 2019 Singapore Grand Prix - which was won by Sebastian Vettel.

Charles Leclerc and his F1-75 lead the Bahrain Grand Prix for nearly every lap of the race - bar the handful of laps where he was fighting wheel-to-wheel with World Champion Max Verstappen.

Carlos Sainz was also in the podium places for every lap of the race, and moved up to P2 after Max Verstappen's engine turned off and forced him to retire from the race. A similar engine issue plagued Sergio Perez's car, forcing both Red Bull drivers to finish the race prematurely.

It wasn't a great weekend for 8x constructors champions Mercedes Benz either, as they struggled to get their cars up to pace with front runners and just about managed to get onto the podium after the safety car was brought out and 2 of the top 4 runners were forced to retire.

The Mercedes drivers qualified in P5 and P9 and things were not looking good for them coming into race day - but their overall pace was enough to put them in the gap between the top 4 cars and the rest of the field.

However, for teams that found themselves at the back of the grid last year, this was the dream start to their season.

For Haas F1 Team they could not have asked for a better start. From finishing bottom in the constructors in 2021, they have already scored more points in one weekend than they have in the past two years combined. Kevin Magnussen brought home the VF-75 in 5th place, while teammate Mick Schumacher secured his best-ever finish in the sport by his p11 finish.

The same could also be said about Alfa Romeo, a team that found itself down in 9th place in the constructors in 2021. The team had both drivers score points with Valtteri Bottas bringing home 6th place whilst Zhou scored points on his Formula One debut.

For Williams, though, it was more of the same. Despite Alex Albon getting into Q2 on his Formula One return, the car lacked any real pace to challenge the top 10 during the race and neither driver was able to score points for the team.

What we have learned

The most awaited part of the new regulations was the potential for much-improved racing – and the first race of the season certainly did not let us down.

The opening race of the season provided us with more wheel-to-wheel action than we have seen in any race in the previous Turbo-Hybrid era of Formula One. The action which we saw take place on track was plentiful but it was still slightly flawed – with large gaps appearing between groups really segregating the race.

The front runners ran close to each other, the midfield ran close and the backmarkers also ran close – but between each group, there was a definite division showing which teams were the ones to fight for the championship and which were the ones who were going to be fighting for points.

The front runners of the Formula One grid for the 2022 season seem to undoubtedly be Red Bull and Ferrari while the 8x world champions Mercedes Benz seem to struggle to keep pace.

Ferrari and Red Bull seem to have built a near-perfect package between them, despite Red Bull Powertrains demonstrating poor reliability towards the end of the race with three of the four RBPT powered cars being forced to retire in the latter stages. Red Bull’s aero unit seems to be second to none, and Ferrari’s also seems to be on par with that.

However, for Mercedes, things are not looking good. The current Constructors Champions took an outlandish approach to the new regulations, opting to put near enough no side pods on the car hoping that would give them the edge over their competitors – but it does not seem to be going to plan for the Brackley based team so far.

The W13 is quicker than the Red Bull and Ferrari around high speed, flowing corners but around slow speed and long straights, looks the car loses a massive amount of time to its competition – with one reason for this being the Mercedes power unit.

Over the years, Mercedes have had one of the best power units in Formula One – being able to beat any car in a drag race, but this year it seems as if something may have gone slightly wrong for the team as they seem to lack any real pace along the straights – and it seems that no one is quite sure why things have gone wrong.

Moving down the grid there is McLaren. The team who finished 3rd in the constructors in the 2021 season look as if they have taken the new regulations horribly, horribly wrong. From a race-winnings car last season, to one which appears to be a backmarker it seems as if this could be a long season for the Woking-based team. Andreas Seidl, McLaren team principal, came out after the Bahrain Grand Prix and announced that their issues may take a while to fix and may even get worse before they get better.

A similar issue has befallen the Aston Martin team as, despite a strong season last season, they seem to be really struggling for pace. Similar to McLaren, the team had a car capable of scoring podiums, but heading into the 2022 season they seem to be sitting at the back of the grid battling with the likes of McLaren and Williams.

Moving in an upwards trajectory though is Haas F1, who were by far the slowest team on the grid in 2021. After giving up on 2021 before it had even begun, the team put all their eggs in the 2022 basket in the hopes that they would be able to create a competitive car that can score frequent points – and they seem to have done that. On Kevin Magnussen’s return to the sport and the team, he secured a P5 finish – whilst Mick Schumacher secured his highest ever finish in Formula One as he took the chequered flag in 11th place.

The F1 grid has been shaken up, with certain cars seeming to be massively out of position - but the real question is, who will win the Formula One World Championship come to the end of the 2022 season?