2022 F1 Spanish GP: Top 5 Bold Predictions

The Spanish GP is right around the corner now. While it's fun to sit back, analyze, make previews, and note down what each team is bringing, it's more fun to just do some off-the-cuff predictions on what we think is going to happen this weekend.

Let's jump straight into the matter at hand as we make our top 5 bold predictions for the Spanish GP.

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#1 Not much change will be seen in the pecking order

The big word this weekend is upgrades. With F1 returning to Europe, it allows teams to add stuff to their cars that should make them go faster. This adds another variable of one team doing a better job than the other, which could in effect lead to a shake-up in the pecking order.

Sadly though, this might just not be the case. With the budget cap in place, there won't be too many extravagant changes taking place in the cars. While new bits will be added and a tenth or two gained here and there, we do not think there will be any significant jumps.

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#2 Mercedes will not show much improvement

In conjunction with the theme of what we mentioned previously, every F1 fan will be keeping an eye on what Mercedes will be bringing this weekend. At the moment, there are suggestions of an upgraded floor making an appearance.

The problem for Mercedes is the presence of an entirely different concept as compared to the rest of the grid. Unfortunately for them, the concept is not working, and they're close to a second down on single-lap pace. Will we see Mercedes make improvements this season? Ideally, we should. Will these improvements bring them on par with Red Bull and Ferrari? That's probably not going to happen.

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#3 Aston Martin's B-spec car would be a failure

The magnitude of the mess the current Aston Martin challenger is in can be inferred from the fact that the team had to bring a B-Spec car to the Spanish GP. The problem with this approach, however, is that the team is putting far too many eggs in one basket.

The amount of resources that would have been sapped in revamping a huge chunk of the car is surely going to put a dent in the budget. Moreover, one thing that has stood the test of time is that in F1, there is no silver bullet. You cannot just turn up with a new car and expect to rocket up the pecking order.

In our view, the approach from Aston Martin of doing too much too early is going to come back to haunt them and this B-Spec is going to turn out to be a failure.

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#4 The action in the Spanish GP will be similar to the 2021 season

The new regulations have received fairly positive feedback this season when it comes to wheel-to-wheel battles. There is just one key negative, which is that the DRS train can be a bit of a limiting factor.

The Spanish GP in the last few years has not been as big a dud as it used to be in the pre-DRS/Pirelli era. Some spots do get exploited by chasing cars while trying to make an overtake.

Even with the new regulations in place, we expect that the wheel-to-wheel action will be more or less similar to the last few years. Sure, there might be a few more overtakes on the main straight because the cars can follow each other more closely, but this won't be the norm in any which way.

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#5 First signs of friction between Ferrari and Red Bull

The Spanish GP is the sixth race of the 2022 F1 championship and so far, things have been rather amicable between Ferrari and Red Bull and their drivers as well. Things have started to get more intense, however, with Ferrari reportedly planning to send a dossier to the FIA of the expected expenses of each team.

Not only that, the Italian team's principal Mattia Binotto has questioned the rate at which Red Bull keeps bringing upgrades at every race. At the Spanish GP, things will start heating up even more as the first signs of a "needle" between Red Bull and Ferrari come to the fore.