2018 they were suspected of having an extra battery and all sorts of rumours as nobody could work out how they suddenly leapfrogged everybody elses PU. 2019 was the year they were suspected of cheating the PU fuel flow and the year after they agreed that private punishment with the FIA, in what must have been a completely unrelated measure the FIA also increased the monitoring of fuel flow for 2020.

For at least 2018 and 2019 they had the best PU on the grid by some margin (I would argue that RB had the best aero package during this time period at most circuits), even more so than the previous class leading Merc PU. For 2020 they had the hangover of the punishment from the FIA so were nowhere near the sharp end till the ground effect years.

There is an argument to be made that they fucked up 2019 and threw away the title with what was a huge advantage at the start of the season or that they agreed with the FIA to throw the 2019 title in exchange for not being kicked out completely that year and the public shaming this would have caused. We will not know till someone from Ferrari speaks about this, if they ever do.

For 2018, Seb buckled under the pressure from Lewis. The comeback from Lewis from Germany onwards was insane, he just ground down Seb and pulled out a ridiculous number of wins.

While this is a valid observation, the car was good enough maybe while Seb was driving it, just because they didn’t win didn’t make it a non competitive car.

2022 they could maybe have challenged a bit more. It’s only really last season where they’ve been absolutely nowhere.

The common factor in their lack of success isn’t the machinery, I don’t think. Be nice if they’re able to show something this season, at least if it’s gonna be Hamilton’s last go round.

I always think wistfully at the 2017 and 2018 f1 seasons. If only somethings would’ve been different…