The 2022 Formula One season starts with the Bahrain Grand Prix this weekend. Practice was on Friday and Saturday morning, followed by qualifying. The race itself will start at dusk in the Middle East on Sunday.
It may be the start of a new campaign, but the bitterness hanging over from the end of last season remains between two leading principals, Mercedes and Red Bull. The fact this weekend should also see the long-awaited publication by the FIA into the events surrounding the end of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in December, may stir fresh animosity.
That was when race director Michael Masi incorrectly followed the protocols regarding lapped cars behind a safety car allowing Max Verstappen to steal the driver’s championship from Lewis Hamilton in the eyes of many fans.
Last weekend's airing of the latest instalment of the highly popular Netflix series Drive to Survive only served to rake over the coals even further.
Even without that spice, however, this season promises to be like no other in recent years because of radical new car designs, explicitly designed to level up the field and make races more competitive.
There is likely to be more overtaking, because, one according to the new regulations, trailing cars will no longer have to cope with the same amount of dirty air when attempting to pass a rival.
And with all the teams now subject to a strict budget cap, teams have come up with creative solutions as to how to interpret the new rules. Mercedes have shrunk their bodywork to the extent their side pods have almost disappeared, Red Bulls have used cutaways under theirs, and Ferrari have adopted a bulbous shape. A number of teams will also feature different nose designs.
On the evidence of pre-season testing, Red Bull again look strong, and are, according to many, favourites for both titles, Constructors and Drivers. Ferrari and McLaren also promise to be in contention to win races this year. And there is always Mercedes, where Hamilton has a new partner this year in the form of George Russell.
Hamilton has already warned that his car is not competitive just yet, with the team suffering from the effect of “porpoising” in testing – an aerodynamic problem that leads to a violent bouncing of the suspension at high speeds.
However, Mercedes have not won eight consecutive Constructors’ titles for nothing, and their engineers would have been hard at work trying to fix the issue.
He will still expect to be near the front of the field. Who knows what will happen if he and Verstappen find themselves racing close together in Bahrain?