Imola Grand Prix Prediction: Will Ferrari Shine On Home Turf? Or Will Max Verstappen and Red Bull Deliver Under Pressure in Imola?
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The Imola Grand Prix
All the Formula 1 fans are stoked to see how things turn out as the F1 paddock moves to Italy this weekend to start off with the European leg of the 2022 season with the Imola Grand Prix. With Carlos Sainz’s shocking retirement from the Australian GP in Melbourne, things have shaken up quite a bit in the grid and we cannot foresee Ferrari as the guaranteed winner of the Constructors’ Championship anymore. The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix has always been one of the favourite circuits of the drivers and the fans alike. This year, will Ferrari prove to be dominant in their home Grand Prix or will some other team come up to grab the race win?
As the F1 racers step into the Imola GP, Charles Leclerc leads the standings with 71 points, followed by Mercedes newbie George Russell in the second position. Reigning World Champion Max Verstappen, plagued by several issues with his car, is currently 43 points behind the lead. Verstappen has always been an eager driver and now, he wants a second chance at winning the World Championship. But in his current state, he needs to make no mistakes at all of he wants to be in contention for the title.
As we are only three races into the F1 2022 season with all its new regulations for the teams, things look to be quite awful for Red Bull and Mercedes. Red Bull’s RB-18 has failed Verstappen on two occasions as he had to retire from the season opener in Bahrain and the Australian GP. Mercedes’ car is still too slow and needs upgrades to remove any porpoising issues. The race in Imola is going to see a raft of updates in the cars as the teams will unleash their first batch of upgrades for the season. If Red Bull does deliver a good car to Verstappen, chances are he will take on Charles Leclerc and clinch the race win in Imola.
Ferrari has the upper hand in the Imola Grand Prix, but Red Bull can also play catch-up
For the Red Bull drivers, this has been a season of DNFs so far. In Bahrain, both Verstappen and Perez’s cars showed problems and in Australia, Verstappen had to retired again. This has caused Christian Horner’s team to go even below Mercedes in the points table. But Ferrari has been consistent with their performance, barring Sainz’s retirement in Australia, proving that their SF-75 is near-flawless when it comes to race pace and reliability.
Former World Championship runner-up Felipe Massa had said he would favour Ferrari for the victory in the Imola Grand Prix. As it is their home Grand Prix, the Scuderia will not leave anything up to chance and will definitely be a force to reckon with for Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez in their Red Bull RB-18’s.
And one thing that cannot be overlooked here is that the season will have its first Sprint Race in Imola too. According to the new rules introduced by the FIA, the Sprint winner will receive 8 Championship points. If Verstappen wants to become the World Champion once more, he needs to do anything within his power to gain some extra points and a Sprint Race win seems to be a good place to start with.
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Riddhi Mondal
(1821 Articles Published)