Ferrari The Favorites In Italy This Weekend

It's the first Sprint Race of the 2022 season, followed by Austria and Brazil later in the year. Though teams aren't big fans of sprint races replacing qualifying, it is more fun for the people watching live and at home. It's more racing, and that's always a good thing.

Instead of three qualifying sessions on a Saturday with the fastest time starting in the front on Sunday, there will be only one practice session on Friday followed by a qualifying session. This qualifying will determine the starting order of the sprint.

In addition to determining the starting order of the actual race on Sunday, the drivers now have more reason to push harder during the Saturday Sprint. The top eight positions are now awarded points. Last year, only the top three drivers received points. In a year where everyone is trying to play catch-up with Ferrari, they'll take whatever points they can.

Valtteri Bottas is particularly good at sprint races, taking the victory at two out of the three races. Can he do the same in an Alfa Romeo, however?

Max Verstappen has managed to accumulate 25 points over the course of three races. His points are from one victory in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. In the other two races, he did not finish. He must be highly agitated at this point because he was within spitting distance of scoring at least 18 points by finishing second, only to have his car blow up spectacularly. Combined, both vehicles have three finishes from six starts. Going by the math alone, there's a 50% chance he may not even finish the first Italian Grand Prix.

Not a great position if you're the defending world champion. According to Red Bull boss Christian Horner, both problems were related to the fuel system. To get back to a position where he can defend his title, he needs to win at least twice with Leclerc finishing tenth or lower. That seems highly unlikely at this point.

And with Red Bull burning through cash and car parts, it won't be long before the FIA starts giving out grid penalties.

Red Bull is not in a great position at all, though its historic rival, Mercedes-Benz, is at least being consistent.

McLaren is famously running a Chrome livery on its wheels this season, so you can only imagine the jokes from Apple fanboys. To be fair, at the beginning of the season, it looked like the two McLarens were running on Windows 95.

The team's performance increased in the second race, and Australia was the highlight of the season so far. Lando Norris must be relieved, as he recently signed a massive multi-year contract.

In the last race, both cars finished in the top six. Not bad considering they were competing with Aston Martin and Williams at the back two races ago.

The big question is whether Australia was a fluke. We don't think so, as the improvement has been steady.

Let's hope the papaya team is at least competitive this weekend.