It’s been a 13 long years since Ferrari won its last piece of silverware and an even longer (albeit by one year) wait for its last world champion.

But with a dominant performance to open the 2022 Formula 1 season at the Bahrain GP, could this be the year that the motorsport powerhouse ends its trophy drought?

It’s too early to tell whether Ferrari are officially back or not, but Aussie F1 fans will be able to watch the intriguing tussle that will no doubt ensue for years to come after Foxtel announced a multi-year rights extension with F1 that keeps Fox Sports and Kayo as the exclusive home of every practice, qualifying session and race in Australia

Sky Sports F1 commentator David Croft certainly believes there’s a strong chance that Scuderia fans will finally have something to sing about and offered a wild stat that suggests second-year Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz will be jumping with joy when it’s all said and done.

“In four of the last five years, the driver finishing second in the season opener has won the title,” Croft told News Corp.

“I personally think Ferrari are a really good bet for the Constructor’s Championship.

“They’ve had time away from a title battle and more wind tunnel time to put together a really good package and a good car.

“Whether that then translates to Charles (Leclerc) or Carlos winning a driver’s title, I’m not sure.

“Neither have been in the hunt for a Formula 1 Driver’s Championship before, albeit Charles showed great composure and maturity when he won GP3 and F2 in back-to-back years.

“I think they could be there or thereabouts.”

Ferrari’s one-two finish in the Bahrain GP was their first since the 2019 Singapore GP when Sebastian Vettel finished first ahead of Leclerc.

Mercedes weren’t far behind in Bahrain, finishing both third and fourth with Lewis Hamilton rounding out the podium.

The Silver Arrows were let down slightly by some porpoising issues which slowed them, but thankfully for those in the Mercedes building they already have a solid headstart on Red Bull and Max Verstappen in both the Constructor’s and Driver’s Championships.

Both Verstappen and Sergio Perez did not finish the race, leaving all three parties with a big doughnut to start the season.

However, Croft doesn’t think it will hinder the driver’s championship at all, insisting that the season is no longer the sprint it used to be.

“I do think Lewis will be right up there and probably with Max at the end of the season,” Croft said.

“Once upon a time, a DNF in the opening race would have been catastrophic, but we only had 15, 16 races a year.

“Now, we’ve got 23 so there’s a lot of time to recover those lost points.

“My gut feeling says that by the time we get to the business end of the season it will be Lewis against Max.”