2022 TEAM PREVIEWS: Red Bull Racing

It has been a seemingly quiet offseason for the Red Bull Racing team, but on the back of the successful 2021 season with Dutch driver Max Verstappen winning the driver's world championship, the expectations will be at an all-time high for one of the top Formula 1 powerhouses heading into the new era of racing.

With Honda pulling out of Formula 1 at the end of last season, Red Bull have an agreement in place that will allow them to continue manufacturing engines going forward, creating new challenges that the team have not previously had to deal with. This potentially creates further complications heading into the new regulations that other teams on the grid may not have to deal with, and while the focus is clearly on Max Verstappen going back-to-back in 2022, their shot at the constructor's championship might have already taken a hit.

While the new regulations present new challenges in the garage, they might also present Red Bull with more challenging competitors on the track, as we have seen in recent times that new regulations can cause an almighty shake-up in the pecking order. Ferrari and

McLaren has shown good signs of improvement early on, exemplifying their potential return to championship contenders in the first set of pre-season testing in Barcelona.

But I am not going to jump ahead too quickly, because, at the end of the day, the driver lineup of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez is up there as one of the best on the grid.

While Verstappen is certain to get the absolute max out of the car every race weekend, Perez also has the ability to play the perfect team game. This was proven on multiple occasions throughout the 2021 season, including the season-finale in Abu Dhabi, where Perez was able to hold off seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, allowing Verstappen to come back within a couple of seconds of the Brit.

The team was also impressed in the first set of testing in Barcelona, the timesheets showed solid times being set by both drivers, as well as the team showing off their impressive sidepod (or lack of sidepod) design. Perez had the third-fastest time overall with a 1:19.556 on the C4 tyre, while Verstappen finished sixth overall with a 1:19.756 on the C3 tyre.

If both drivers perform at the top of their abilities this season, there is no reason why the team can't challenge for both the driver's championship and the constructor's championship. But in a season that is almost impossible to predict, I would not be so shocked if they were a team who were to stumble down the order in 2022.

Predictions

Drivers championship

Max Verstappen - 3rd

Sergio Perez - 5th

Constructors championship

Red Bull Racing - 3rd