(Motorsport) The 2022 Formula 1 season makes its way to Italy and the Tifosi will be in the stands, unfurling their Ferrari banners and cheering on the most successful team in the sport’s history. After all, why not? Scuderia Ferrari have had little to celebrate in over a decade but they have won two of the three races in the season so far and look favourites to win the elusive World Championship.
The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix weekend will also feature the sprint race, which means that the qualification process will involve more wheel-to-wheel action rather than the standard qualifying rounds to determine the grid positions for the race. Drivers will be racing 21 laps around the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari, a.k.a Imola with all 20 drivers placed in grid positions based on the qualification process on Friday.
One of the major changes as compared to 2021 with regards to sprint races is that instead of only the top 3, the top 8 will secure points which amount to a total of 36 instead of 26. This means that sprint races are more important than ever before as winning all the three sprint races in a season almost amounts to a race win in itself (24 points). There will only be two practice sessions this weekend, one fewer than the usual and the race itself will be 63 laps.
In terms of points, the race winner gets 25 points (26 if they manage to get the fastest lap) while the 10th place gets a single point. Mercedes will be one of the teams looking to improve their season as the Silver Arrows have been experiencing some drastic 'porpoising issues' and are expected to make improvements to the car ahead of the race. Team principal Toto Wolff said "There's been a lot of hard work over the Easter weekend in the factory to bring improvements to the car and get it ready to head to the next race, and that shows the team's dedication to turning the situation around. Of course, we must be realistic, it will take time to make the gains we want, but we're learning as much as we can from each race and finding avenues to push us forward."
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