Here’re The Ones Who Starred (And Those Who Didn’t) At A Thrilling 2022 F1 Season Opener

The 2022 Formula One season sees the dawn of a new era of technical regulations, and it couldn’t have started on a more thrilling note than at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix. It had everything, from an intense battle at the front, fairytale stories in the midfield, some shock results, as well as a late race safety to spice things up a bit. Here are the winners and losers from an action-packed season opener:

Winners

Ferrari

 

It was a long time coming since Singapore 2019, but the folks at Scuderia Ferrari finally made it happen at Bahrain with Charles Leclerc taking a memorable win. Coincidentally, it is on the same track where a technical issue robbed him of the win in 2019. But this win surely did not come easy, as the pole sitter had to stave off an intense onslaught, including multiple passes for the lead from reigning champion, Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing)  for most of the race. That challenge fizzled out in the closing stages after Verstappen faced technical gremlins that had him retire from the race, leaving Leclerc with a clear path to take the third win of his F1 career.

As if the win wasn’t enough, Verstappen’s technical gremlins meant, teammate Carlos Sainz made it a Ferrari 1-2 finish. Coincidentally, it's also the first Ferrari 1-2 finish since Singapore 2019 which was also the venue for Ferrari’s last win in F1. Overall, it couldn’t have been a more perfect start to the season for the prancing horse.

Kevin Magnussen

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After everything that went down in recent times, you could consider the Kevin Magnussen-Haas story akin to a Cinderella one. It seemed like Magnussen never left F1 after his surprise return to F1, qualifying a strong seventh, and then driving a strong race, shadowing Mercedes to finish the race in fifth place. This result puts Haas into third position in the constructors standings which is huge for the American team after their struggles in recent years.

Alfa Romeo 

Another Ferrari-powered team that has been struggling in recent years had a great start to 2022.  The Alfa Romeo pair of Valtteri Bottas and rookie Guanyu Zhou managed to recover from a poor start to finish a strong sixth and 10th in the end, putting them fourth overall in the constructors standings. 

Mercedes 

It would be difficult to put reigning constructors' champions Mercedes as a winner in Bahrain considering their pace deficit to Ferrari and Red Bull Racing. But with the latter team suffering shock retirements, seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton and new teammate George Russell picked up the pieces to finish third and fourth in the end. Sure, it was a quiet race from the pair, but it is a valuable haul of points as they work to try and get within the mix with the top teams.

Losers

Red Bull Racing

It was looking like a hard fought second and fourth place for Red Bull Racing after plenty of battles with the Ferraris, but it all came crashing down towards the end of the race. Reigning drivers’ champion Max Verstappen, who was battling Charles Leclerc for the race lead, started suffering steering issues, which then evolved into a fuel pump issue that forced him to retire from the race. A nightmarish start to his title defence. 

As if that wasn’t enough, teammate Sergio Perez who was running third at the start of the final lap also suffered a fuel pump issue that caused him to spin and retire from the race as well. Overall a disastrous opening round for Red Bull Racing, coming away with zero points with rivals, Ferrari taking the full haul.

McLaren

 

McLaren’s preseason struggles continued to spill over into the opening race, with both Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo firmly struck at the tail end of the field. Norris qualifying 13th was the only high point of the weekend, with both cars having no pace in the race. In the end, Ricciardo finished 14th, with Norris in 15th position. 

Aston Martin

Another Mercedes-powered team, Aston Martin had a weekend to forget at the Bahrain Grand Prix. They were already on the backfoot with Sebastian Vettel being ruled out of the race due to testing positive for COVID-19, and things didn’t get better. Lance Stroll managed to finish in 12th position, while Nico Hulkenberg who deputised for Vettel, finished 17th and last of the runners. 

It won’t be too long before F1 returns to racing action with the second round of the season at Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It is scheduled to run from March 25-27.