Conclusions | Ferrari drivers not the strongest driver duo after all

After an insane weekend in Italy for Max Verstappen, there is suddenly a glimmer of hope for Dutch F1 fans of a second title for the Red Bull Racing driver. The partly wet weekend provided an interesting stage for the next installment of the battle between Ferrari and Red Bull. Here's what we learned:

Leclerc and Sainz not the strongest driver duo

The two Ferrari drivers Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc are sometimes considered by F1 experts, reporters and fans as the best driver duo on the grid. The two relatively young drivers both possess enormous drive, fast pace and drive each other to maximum performances. Now that four races have been completed, although Ferrari is ahead of Red Bull Racing and Leclerc is at the top of the championship, we have seen more mistakes from the Ferrari duo than the Red Bull Racing duo.

To immediately conclude that Sainz and Leclerc is not a good driver duo is going too far. But a big question mark can be placed there. Looking at the past races, Verstappen and Sergio Perez seem to be a lot more consistent and perhaps faster drivers. The dropouts on the part of the Red Bull drivers were due to reliability problems so it's impossible to blame them for their retirements. In addition, Verstappen managed to beat Leclerc in the races he finished, while the Ferrari is still considered the faster of the two.

With Sainz, we saw the most mistakes of the four drivers. The consequences of his mistakes were also the greatest. In Imola, Leclerc also showed that he is not as cool as we always think, by spinning in pursuit of Perez. The conclusion is that Verstappen and Perez are the strongest driving duo; the team is inferior to Ferrari in terms of reliability.

Adjusted sprint weekend helped Verstappen catch up

This race weekend also saw further experimentation with the sprint format. Once again, three races will be held in 2022 using this format. Two things have changed; the man who is fastest on Friday actually puts pole position behind his name and there are more points to be obtained. Because Verstappen won the sprint race and the normal race, he scored a record number of points, 34.

Whether the new 'sprint rules' also directly contributed to a more exciting sprint race is hard to say. There was more for the fans to pay attention to during the 21 laps, as there was still fighting for the seventh and eighth positions. In any case, it helped Verstappen catch up more and who knows, it also provided a harder mental blow to championship leader Leclerc.

Ricciardo didn't lie and Hamilton is lost

Two other striking conclusions we can draw after the race weekend in Imola is the form of Hamilton and the form of McLaren. Starting with McLaren, who started this season particularly badly. The British team closed out 2021 with a tense battle with Ferrari for P3 in the constructors' championship. At the start of 2022 in Bahrain, Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo were driving around hopelessly. Yet Ricciardo said we could still expect podiums from the team this year. And lo and behold; Ricciardo did not lie. Norris grabbed a nice P3, the Australian himself was just not there and finished stiffly at the back.

The final conclusion we draw from the Italian race weekend is that Lewis Hamilton has lost it for a while. To all expectations, the Briton can surely recover and beat his teammate George Russell, but in Imola, the seven-time world champion was downgraded. Not only is the car not fast, but the team had bad luck during qualifying with rain and the red flag. Hamilton did not have a good weekend and failed to overtake Pierre Gasly. Villeneuve said it all; a megastar in a winning car is great, but when this seven-time world champion doesn't win, the weak form is only more painful.