Rule changes
In 2022, a massive change of rules was introduced, enforcing the need for Ground Effect due to aerodynamics on top of the car being regulated more, in order to reduce the amount and effect of dirty air on the car behind (in order to decrease the difficulty of overtaking).
McLaren Mercedes in 2022
With the driver pairing of Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo, the team's first results seemed quite disappointing, at least in terms of point winning: Only two out of the first seven races left the McLaren team with of double-digit results, adding both drivers' individual points. Two race weekends, namely Bahrain (round 1) and Miami (round 5), ended with zero points.
Anyway, the team is currently "best of the rest" (the best team after the so-called "top-teams" Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes AMG-Petronas).
However, it is to distinguish between the two drivers' individual results: Lando Norris is currently in position 7 of the drivers' standings, so he is best of the rest looking at the drivers' championship by ending five races third, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth out of the first seven races. Only once, in Bahrain, he did not score points while finishing (15th) and he could not finish the Miami GP. It is important to keep in mind that Norris suffered a tonsillitis at the Barcelona GP and had not completely cured until the Monaco GP.
Daniel Ricciardo is much more unstable than his teammate, only scoring points at his home race (round 3). During the first seven races, he has already a 37-point deficit to Lando. This, of course, is very disappointing for such an ambitious team, and thus CEO Zak Brown publicly talks about the expectations Danny had "not met" yet. The Australian himself admitted he had not really done anything spectacular this year".
Despite these problems, the McLaren car looks fast and competitive compared to most of the field, only three teams are pulling away, among which Red Bull and Ferrari were fighting near to one second quicker than all other cars on the grid, at least at the Baku street circuit with its nearly 2km long straight.
