[F1專題] The horn of the counterattack──Verstappen starts defending title with three straight victories

Maintaining the old practice: as long as I write about Ferrari, they will brand the race... Looking at the glory at the beginning of the season, thinking that it is finally possible to look forward to this year, it turns out that Red Bull immediately became the first team of the season after solving the reliability problem. Teams on a winning streak -- is the Red Army's climax so short-lived?

Depend onAfter the cancellation of the Russian Grand Prix, the gap between the Italian Grand Prix and the Singapore Grand Prix was determined not to arrange a replacement race—it was like an extra four-week “autumn break”—so this year’s race schedule will remain the same as last year’s 22 races, Failed to break the record two years in a row. It's only 1/7 of the three races before, we've all seen that a good start doesn't mean a good season -- it's really a hindrance to the horse (Ferrari) -- Red Bull's frequent failures at the start of the season have made them a big loss, but as long as they can be solved , there is still a lot of time to reverse, but the result is faster than expected!

Ferrari kicked at home

First of all, at the Emilia-Romagna station, the home of Ferrari, Red Bull played a big kick: Max Verstappen not only managed the qualifying and the first sprint of the season, but also led every lap from start to finish in the final. Won the fastest lap, repeating the same complete victory grand slam as points leader Charles Leclerc in Australia in the previous stop, and what's more, Sergio Perez also won the second place this time, making Red Bull's victory in Malaysia since 2016. The 1-2 complete victory in more than five years since the station (but the last time was Verstappen second), and the first 1-2 for this group of teammates since their partnership last year.

For the second time in his career, Leclerc came to the team's home court with a victory in the first race. This time, not only did he fail to perform the celebration, he was beaten by two Red Bulls all the way (Perez was in second place except for one stop after the start), and the final set He also lost control and slipped, rushed into the sand, damaged his nose and had to stop for another change. He fell from 3rd to 9th in one breath. After returning to the court, he turned the tide and got back to 6th; teammate Carlos Sainz rushed on the first lap. The sand and ashes were wiped out, allowing the Red Army to win the worst result of the year at home (not even a victory).

Since the start of this year, Verstappen has only two results: either a failure to retire or a victory—that is, a sure-fire victory—this site not only has no failures, but also a complete victory. The race was quickly replaced by Ferrari struggling to catch up, but the tune could not be set in terms of speed difference: when it came to the Miami street race where F1 was held for the first time, Ferrari won the pre-arranged front row after more than two years since the 2019 Mexico Grand Prix (Last time was also Leclerc pole position), it seems that this year's championship competition can be expected.

Red Bull reverses trophy double

However, Ferrari's front-row formation collapsed at the beginning of the final: running together Verstappen captured Sainz, and then chased Leclerc, which made Leclerc's tires wear extremely fast, and lost the lead on the ninth lap, and Verstappen went all the way after that—— Today's Red Bull seems to have replaced Ferrari's speed advantage in the first three races - it ended up winning the first wave of this year's winning streak, and also included the fastest lap, and Ferrari's 2-3 was the biggest stop loss under Red Bull's counterattack. Yes, but the point is that the Red Army used a lot of upgrades at this station that were originally intended to be introduced at the previous station, but they were not as fast as the non-faulty Red Bull.

Ferrari's response was quick, and Leclerc regained pole position in Spain again and took the lead from the start. Although Sainz made another mistake on the 7th lap, Leclerc regained his overwhelming speed, and Verstappen, who was chasing hard, was also in 9th. The lap made a mistake and lost two places in a row. This station should be the opportunity for the Red Army to recover the lost ground. Unexpectedly, Leclerc suddenly slowed down on the 27th lap, and then drove back to the garage to retire. The MGU-H heat recovery device of the turbo system Malfunction - finally seeing the first malfunction of Ferrari's car of the year!

After Leclerc retired from the race, George Russell, who worked hard to suppress the two Red Bulls from the ninth lap (at this time, the order was still before Perez and after Verstappen), gave Mercedes the first in-game lead of the season, but it was only four laps later. The previous article mentioned that Red Bull won a 1-2 victory that lasted more than five years. I didn’t expect this time to usher in the next one after only one stop. The same problem of poor DRS movement as in qualifying still made a lot of supplements, but this time the fastest lap belonged to Perez, who performed better but had to give way.

Mercedes' sore feet improved

It was very late in this issue that I mentioned the championship team Mercedes, which could not be defended again, because this year’s record continued to bottom out. However, after the big upgrade in Spain, the design of the bottom plate was modified to greatly improve the long-standing bounce problem. , and even the two Red Bulls were once unable to get Russell cheap - although partly because of the nature of this race track is easy to defend and difficult to attack - let Russell stand on the podium for the second time of the season ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton! But the reason why I just used "improved" instead of "finally improved" is that everyone knows that just looking at one performance is not necessarily a proof.

After the Spanish Grand Prix, Ferrari/Leclerc's double-ranking lead was lost to Red Bull/Verstappen. After the deadline for this issue, it will be Leclerc's home race in Monaco. He has not yet had an outstanding record in his home country. Will he be able to fulfill his wish this year? ? What will the 2022 new-spec cars do on the slowest track? When it comes to the slowest track, will Mercedes, who was originally not good at high-speed sections due to the most serious bouncing problem, have a chance to show off? Then there are the high-speed Azerbaijan station and the Canadian station that has been suspended for two years due to the Wuhan pneumonia epidemic in China. What's more, will there be more than two teams competing for the championship this season...?

【Crooked batch F1】

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc, who had a strong start to the year and came to the home race of Emilia-Romagna in Italy at the top of the standings, met his trainer and friends in Tuscany on Monday night before the race when he was about to drive away in Tuscany. A group of enthusiastic car fans, according to his warm-hearted habit, as long as the car fans wave at the roadside, they will definitely get off the car to sign and take a photo; and this time, the more and more car fans gather, someone surrounded by the crowd even listed his hand with a price of more than 10 million Taiwan dollars. Richard Mille watch pulled!

Leclerc wears a prototype watch in the name of his own endorsement. It is difficult to sell the countertop pipes. Although the watch is provided by the manufacturer, he himself has no loss, but he may not dare to be so "close to the people" in the future, and as a promising This year, the driver who won the championship for Ferrari for 15 years, had such an encounter on the streets of Italy. He had a bad start in this race, and he made mistakes in the final set and missed the podium. Could it be that he was still in shock? The robbers should be dangling street lights!