The most successful team in F1 plays at home: Imola is less than 100 km from Maranello, its historic headquarters, the perfect opportunity to confirm the revival noted by the Scuderia during the first three Grands Prix of the season.

If Leclerc and the Scuderia dominate the driver and constructor rankings with 34 and 39 points respectively, the Monegasque, in his usual style, keeps a cool head.

"We have to approach this race weekend just like we approached the first three weekends. It's extremely important not to put extra pressure on yourself," he warned after his victory in Australia.

The 24-year-old driver is off to a faultless start to the season: winning two out of three rounds (in Bahrain and Australia), Leclerc has so far only had a second place as the worst result at the Saudi Arabian GP. , behind defending champion Max Verstappen, already relegated to 46 points in the championship.

The Ferrari driver currently has 71 points and is ahead of Mercedes rookie George Russell (37), surprising 2nd, as well as his Spanish teammate Carlos Sainz Jr (33), who hopes to bounce back in front of the tifosi after a last GP to forget.

In Australia, Sainz had a terrible weekend.

Modest 9th in qualifying, he lost control of his single-seater at the start of the race the next day, leading him to retire.

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc on the top step of the Australian F1 GP on April 10, 2022 at the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne Con Chronis AFP / Archives

Reliability in question at Red Bull

On paper, if the Italian single-seater holds the reins of the championship, on the track, it will have to hold a candle to the Red Bull of the Dutchman Verstappen and his Mexican teammate Sergio Pérez.

Unless the mechanical glitches of Red Bull - combined with the rain expected during the weekend - come again to play the spoilsport?

Since the start of the season, the Austrian team has suffered from reliability problems, which has already led Verstappen to retire twice (Bahrain and Australia) - once for Pérez (Bahrain).

Without these problems, Verstappen, now 6th in the championship with his 25 points won during his victory in Saudi Arabia, would give the answer to Leclerc.

With Pérez (30 pts, 4th in the championship), the Red Bull drivers will now try to catch up with the hope of winning in rival lands as Verstappen did in 2021.

Mercedes, struggling to manage its single-seater with original aerodynamics, will try to repeat its Australian performance.

The reigning constructors' world champion team had benefited from Verstappen's setbacks to place Russell on the podium in Australia.

Lewis Hamilton finishing 4th.

The Ferrari of Monegasque Charles Leclerc during the second practice session of the Australian F1 GP on April 8 at the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne William WEST AFP / Archives

Sprint race

A mythical name in the history of F1, Imola hosted 27 Grands Prix between 1980 and 2006. It was at Imola that the Brazilian Ayrton Senna killed himself in 1994, during a nightmarish weekend which also cost life to the Austrian Roland Ratzenberger.

Returned to the 2020 calendar to compensate for various cancellations due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the race will be contested this year to replace the Chinese GP in Shanghai, still absent from the calendar due to the health situation.

The round also marks the return on Saturday of a sprint race, a format inaugurated last season.

In addition to Emilia-Romagna, the format is also expected in Austria on the weekend of July 10 and in Brazil on the weekend of November 13.

With the sprint races, the classic qualifications (time trials) are brought forward from Saturday to Friday.

Their result defines the starting order of a race of 100 km and 30 minutes approximately on Saturday, which itself defines the starting grid of the GP on Sunday.

The objective: to offer more entertainment over three days.

These sprints also offer more championship points: from eight for first to one for 8th.

A potential boon for Ferrari and Leclerc, who could pocket 34 points in the event of a double victory and fastest lap in the race.

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen after his retirement during the F1 Australian GP on April 10, 2022 at Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne William WEST AFP/Archives

Something to possibly console the Monegasque pilot for the theft on Monday of his Richard Mille watch worth 300,000 euros while he was signing autographs in the Tuscan seaside town of Viareggio.

© 2022 AFP