Verstappen, Leclerc the stories of 2022 F1 season so far

From 2014 until last year, Mercedes dominated the sport of Formula One.

Even in 2021, when Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took home the drivers’ championship – the first time since 2013 that either Lewis Hamilton or Nico Rosberg failed to finish atop the points – Toto Wolff’s Mercedes team captured its eighth straight constructors’ crown in a run of dominance not seen since Ferrari of the late 1990s and early 2000s.

But things have changed. Mercedes no longer has a stranglehold on first place the way it once did.

F1 made a series of technical changes before the start of 2022, with new aerodynamic and tire requirements aimed at reducing a loss of downforce in the car, which the sport hoped would lead to more overtakes and an overall more competitive grid. The last time F1 made drastic rules changes with the beginning of the turbo-hybrid era – a revised engine formula – in 2014, the first year Mercedes began its string of championships at both the drivers’ and constructors’ level.

F1’s all-time leader in career victories (103) and a winner of seven drivers’ titles, Hamilton has just one podium finish in his first eight races this year. He sits sixth in drivers points with 62 and is 21 behind Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jr. in fifth. Teammate George Russell has fared better with three third-place finishes and sits fourth with 99, but it’s still not what the German manufacturer envisioned.

“Can I say it’s the best, most exciting journey? No, but it is an experience and it’s bringing the team closer,” Hamilton said last week.

“It’s making us all have to sharpen our tools. The technology is advancing a lot to be able to understand it, and we’re pulling closer than ever before. I guess that’s what happens when you’re faced with