F1's 2022 Season Is More Than Max and Lewis

Last year, Formula 1 wrapped up its initial turbo hybrid V-6 era with an all-out season between the two best drivers and teams on the grid. They fought to a stalemate, with Mercedes winning the constructor's title while Red Bull's Max Verstappen took a driver's title off Lewis Hamilton after a controversial officiating decision. That was then. Following a complete reset of F1's downforce paradigm, 2022 is a whole new era entirely.

Seven-time series champion Lewis Hamilton remains the title favorite, but Mercedes seems to have lost its dominant form in testing. Both Hamilton and new teammate George Russell have been down on their car in the press, with Russell going as far as to call it closer to Alfa Romeo's pace than that of the presumed leaders. Radical new sidepods introduced in testing last weekend have done little to reduce "porpoising," a bouncing effect caused by floor downforce elements repeatedly stalling out and reactivating at speed; that leaves what the Mercedes struggling for straight-line speed, something it's done best since the V-6 hybrid powertrains debuted. Reading too far into a driver's concerns about speed can be misleading (Hamilton complains about the car ahead of every championship season), but Mercedes certainly is not where they expected to be.

Red Bull is much closer to their offseason expectation. Their new-for-2022 RB18 does not look like the world-beater it was in the first half of 2021, but it seems competitive with the other leaders and, in hands as capable as Verstappen's, ready to start winning races immediately. Unfortunately for Red Bull, Mercedes are not their only competition. A different competitive landscape has put them in the middle of what might develop into a deep group at the front of the field.