If the Dutchman has largely dominated the season, his epilogue this weekend can be spiced up by the revival of Mercedes and its British driver, in search of revenge after losing the 2021 title there in the controversy.
Abu Dhabi, December 12, 2021. Max Verstappen overtakes Lewis Hamilton on the very last lap of the last Grand Prix of the year and wins his first world championship title. The Briton, who had led the entire race before the arrival in extremis of a safety car, redistributing the cards, blames the blow and speaks of “manipulation“. That day, “my worst fears came alive“, he confessed to Vanity Fair last August, without having really managed to put behind him this moment when his eighth title, which would have been a record, escaped him in one lap.
To move forward, Hamilton is still looking for his first success in 2022 and therefore has a last chance to achieve it, on the very site of his painful failure, the Yas Marina circuit. When Verstappen has the opportunity to win a 15th victory in 22 races … The return to the Emirates also reminds us how much F1 is struggling to extricate itself from this controversy. The International Automobile Federation (FIA), regulator of the championship, did a good job of cleaning up by dismissing Michael Masi, the race director whose decision to restart the race on the last lap was not legal.
A household still insufficient
But the evil remains latent, as evidenced by the many controversies linked to the application of the regulations this year. Eduardo Freitas, one of Masi’s two replacements alongside Niels Wittich, also paid for his management of the Japanese Grand Prix, where Verstappen was titled in grotesque conditions. The FIA, which had notably set up a virtual racing control room at the start of the season, based on the model of football video arbitration (VAR), announced on Tuesday a new stage in its restructuring process.
His new “race management development program» debriefed the last Grands Prix with the aim of «streamline race director operations and lay the foundation for the development of future race directors“. While waiting to reap the benefits, it must complete a season without false note which also preserves some sporting interests. At the forefront of which is, for once in 2022, Mercedes.
Mercedes menace Ferrari
The previously dominant team, dethroned by Red Bull, won its first Grand Prix in Brazil last week, thanks to the first victory of its rookie George Russell. Still empty-handed this season, Hamilton, who finished 2nd in São Paulo, has one last chance to break a record: winning at least once in 16 consecutive seasons. Out of breath, Ferrari will try to finish on a high note to preserve its second place among the manufacturers, threatened by Mercedes (524 points against 505). The Scuderia, whose boss Mattia Binotto is announced at the start by the Gazzetta dello Sport, also wants to keep 2nd place among the drivers with Charles Leclerc, tied on points with Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Pérez (290 pts).
Behind, 4th place seems promised to Alpine against McLaren (167 points against 148). It remains to be seen whether the drivers of the French team, Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso, will not put a spoke in the wheels like in Brazil, for the end of their collaboration before the departure of the Spaniard for Aston Martin. He will replace the German Sebastian Vettel, quadruple world champion (2010-2013) who leaves F1 on Sunday after three seasons far from his best standards.
