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There is great jubilation in Italy as Ferrari returned to winning ways, but Christian Klien warned of the flip side if the good times stop.

Ferrari had not won a Formula 1 race since Singapore 2019, but that unwanted streak was put to rest emphatically at the 2022 season-opener as Charles Leclerc took the Bahrain victory, leading home a Ferrari one-two ahead of team-mate Carlos Sainz.

There is no other Formula 1 team like Ferrari, and as expected, their return to the top step of the podium has been lapped up by the press in their native Italy.

However, former Formula 1 racer Klien warned that this praise can quickly turn to criticism again.

Speaking on ServusTV’s ‘Sport und Talk aus dem Hangar-7’ programme, regarding the Ferrari press coverage in Italy, Klien said: “That could be problematic. The Italian press in particular likes to write you up and then brutally bring you back down to earth, we have experienced that time and time again.”

The 2020 and 2021 campaigns represented tough times for Ferrari, especially 2020 as the Scuderia found themselves fighting in the midfield just trying to score points.

But Ferrari looked ahead to 2022 as their golden ticket back to the front thanks to sweeping regulation changes, using 2021 primarily to focus on the season to follow.

And as Bahrain showed, this turned out to be the correct decision.

“Ferra