Why Formula 1 2022’s midfield battle is so unpredictable

At the 2022 season start in Bahrain all attention were on Mercedes’ struggles, while Ferrari caught the eye with an impressive all-round package that somehow managed to get around the 2022 cars’ trademark porpoising without sacrificing too much performance.

Behind the biggest teams, it seemed like Haas and Alfa Romeo had stolen a march on the rest of the midfield runners, with McLaren and Aston Martin particularly disappointing.

While McLaren managed to solve its brake overheating issues and fought its way back to where the inherent car performance allows it to be, Aston Martin pinned its hopes on a B-spec that was dubbed green Red Bull due to its similarities with the RB18.

Over the first few races, though, all midfield runners seemed to edge ever closer as they overcame some early-stage gremlins and set-up mannerisms inherent to an all-new car concept.

But rather than following a predictable pattern like late 2021, when McLaren was clearly fourth best after losing touch with Ferrari, it still remains to be seen how 2022’s midfield battle will play out with performances still swinging wildly weekend to weekend.

“In terms of competitiveness it’s difficult to predict at the moment,” McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl said. “We made a good step forward over Barcelona. We addressed some weaknesses that the car had.

“At the same time a lot of other cars did as well. Baku and Montreal are kind of different tracks again, so I think it’s really difficult to predict. We have seen big swings in the pecking order this year and therefore I’m very cautious with making predictions.

“Our target is clear we want to fight for this P4 in the championship I think we have everything in the team together with Lando and Daniel to do that. We know that the competition will not stand still so we need to make sure we keep developing this car as well.”