812 Competizione

Make
Ferrari
Segment
Coupe

Since the pandemic hit, Formula 1 will be returning to Australia for the first time. It has been three long years since the teams lined up at what used to be the first race of the season.

Albert Park has been part of the F1 circus since 1996, and it historically sets the tone for the season. While it is the third race of the 2022 season, we can expect to see some fireworks.

The last Australian Grand Prix was dominated by Valtteri Bottas, though Michael Schumacher still holds the record for the most wins. He won there four times, followed by Sebastian Vettel on three victories.

Vettel is finally returning to the 2022 season after a bout of Covid-19, though it's doubtful he'll be able to add a fourth victory to his tally.

Albert Park

Albert Park is a temporary street circuit, and it currently has no record holder. In the three years since the last Grand Prix, the Australians have made some changes to the track to increase overtaking opportunities.

The new layout should work well with the 2022 cars, which are closer together than ever before. All of the critical overtaking corners have been widened.

The current layout is 3.298 miles long, and the drivers will cover 191.327 miles over 58 laps.

As you can see in the image below, the track is quite fast. The FIA also announced two additional DRS detection zones in a surprise move. The DRS zones between turns 6 and 7, as well as 12 and 13, remain. The two new DRS zones are directly after turn 14 towards the finish line and after turn two.

Mercedes Updates

Can you believe Hamilton is in fifth place after two races, with his younger teammate, George Russel in fourth place?

After the insane 2021 season, we were expecting Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen to duke it out at the top, but Mercedes has been trailing. Its cars are just not competitive, and much closer in performance to the midfielders.

Hamilton's season so far has been so bad that Verstappen is nine points ahead after just one race. Verstappen's car broke down in the first race, but he simply needed one race to shoot ahead of his arch-nemesis.

According to F1's technical contributors, Mercedes will debut its first major updates this weekend. You can expect to see a new rear wing and some changes to the floor. Mercedes desperately needs to get rid of its porpoising problem, if only to reduce the team's current Tylenol spending.

But, seriously. Mercedes needs to start being competitive. We'd love three racers competing for the 2022 driver's championship instead of the current two-horse race.

Continued Ferrari Dominance

We hate to make predictions this early in the year, but at this point, Ferrari is performing so well that we can't see anyone catching up. After just two races, it has more than double the constructor's points of the team in second place.

Red Bull arguably lost its shot at the constructor's championship due to a double DNF in the first race. The best it can hope for now is the Ferrari drivers messing up, which seems highly unlikely.

Charles Leclerc is on fire, and Carlos Sainz is arguably working harder than anyone on the grid. He wants a win, and we want him to win. Maybe then Sainz will finally get rid of his VW Golf and trade it in on a Ferrari 812 Competizione?

The only fly in Ferrari's ointment is Max Verstappen. He's the only driver who can keep Ferrari from locking out the front row.

Can Max Hold Off?

It was infuriating watching Max Verstappen during the Bahrain Grand Prix. He'd overtake Leclerc down the main straight, after which Leclerc took the lead back seconds later. This happened three times before Max's car gave up.

The same thing happened at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, but Verstappen eventually learned, and that one move scored him the victory.

Verstappen has the same approach to racing as Senna, but he lacks Schumacher's clinical style. The latter would wait for the perfect moment to strike, while Senna just went flat out and refused to back out of a corner.

With four DRS zones, two highly competitive cars, and two aggressive drivers, the winner will likely be the person who can think tactically.

Will Max Verstappen let an overtaking opportunity pass to overtake at a better place further down the circuit, or will the red mist descend?