The complete reset brought about by Formula 1’s 2022 technical regulations change has had a dramatic but short-lived impact on Red Bull’s balance of power.
In the year It was clear in 2021, with Sergio Perez approaching the pace of Red Bull predecessor Max Verstappen, that his star driver was not going to top it. But Perez did more than enough to win a contract extension.
Once the well-sorted RB16B was replaced by the promising but overweight RB18, the power balance shifted. Verstappen couldn’t get the new chassis to turn corners to his liking, and there wasn’t much to choose between him and Perez at single-lap pace in the opening race. Perez even grabbed the first pole position of his career in Jeddah, but an early Safety Car played against him, opening the door for Verstappen to open the team’s 2022 tag with a win.
It wasn’t just Perez’s speed that was impressive in the early stages of this season. Red Bull have had reliability problems in some of the early races that have hurt their points. Verstappen had two race-ending crashes in the first three rounds, one more than Perez, but was delayed by a mistake in Miami, as his team-mate won again.
This made the following race in Spain a fascinating study of Red Bull’s approach to team orders. Verstappen is 19 points behind leader Leclerc in third, with a similar gap to his team-mate, despite these narrow gaps early in the season, with Red Bull Perez having twice overtaken his team-mate in Barcelona. He again made way for Verstappen two races later in Azerbaijan.
Among those came Perez’s latest contract extension and his first win of the year at Monaco just days later. This came after Verstappen qualified again, this time with help from Perez, thwarting Verstappen’s attempt to improve. It was later speculated at the time that Verstappen suspected Perez’s brush with the defense was not entirely coincidental.
Perez’s car crashed in Canada, leaving the retirement points two-all between him and Verstappen for the evening. Meanwhile, Red Bull were making progress with their car, simplifying the chassis and addressing the world champion’s handling concerns. By the middle of the season, the race for the title had become completely one-sided, with Verstappen routinely pulling ahead by more than half a second. As a result, there was little question that Red Bull would enforce team orders when the penalized Verstappen caught Perez during the Spa race. He passed easily.
Advertisement | Become a RaceFans fan and
At one point, Verstappen seemed to win every race after the summer break. It wasn’t because of Singapore, where an ignition error by their team cost them the final lap in Q3 and Perez won. Verstappen lost another race in Brazil, this time he was already the champion.
In that sense, the team is expected to be less concerned about the weekend away from the grid in a weekend in which the team suffered a tire failure and was unable to catch the Mercedes for once. But Verstappen was allowed to pass team-mate Fernando Alonso in an unsuccessful attempt to attack ahead, surprising onlookers by refusing to give way to Perez when told. Verstappen insisted he had “reasons” but refused to explain what they were, suggesting the Monaco side refused to give ground to his team-mate while the trophy was locked.
Verstappen has shown his ability to handle a car he doesn’t like early on. He reasserted his dominance, which never happened after eight laps, even when Perez was able to qualify him at times. But as the final races of 2021 have shown, even a driver of Verstappen’s talent can benefit greatly from his team-mate’s goodwill and it remains to be seen whether he will regret the unnecessary animosity he sparked in Brazil.
Advertisement | Become a RaceFans fan and
Non-representative comparisons were omitted. Negative value: Verstappen was fast; Positive value: Perez was fast.
Advertisement | Become a RaceFans fan and
2022 F1 season
Browse all 2022 F1 current articles
