F1 Season 2022 In Review

By Kiwi Kali and Chelsea Wintle

To recap:

Chelsea is a longstanding Formula 1 fan. Kali’s knowledge of F1 comes from watching season 4 of Drive To Survive on Netflix at the start of the year, having seen Lewis Hamilton on the Graham Norton Show, and via various Daily Mail articles (which seemed to be the biggest surprise to readers of the preview article).

Before the start of the 2022 Formula 1 season, Chelsea and Kali made their predictions for the year. How did they fare?

What to look forward to:

 Both of us tipped the young Brit, George Russell’s move from Williams to Mercedes. He’s certainly had a good season, finishing in the top five in all but a handful of races, outperforming his seven-time world champion teammate at the start of the season , earning the nickname “Mr Consistency” and finally earning his maiden F1 win in the penultimate race of the season in Brazil.  He and Lewis Hamilton seem to have formed a respectful relationship, which is quite the achievement in the cutthroat world of Formula 1, where teammates are vying for individual glory. What no one predicted, of course, was just how bad the Mercedes W13 car would be. 2023 may yet be George Russell’s year.

Drivers to watch

 For Chelsea, it was Zhou Guanyu at Alfa Romeo, and for Kali, Lewis Hamilton. Zhou has had a more respectable season than his 18th place (at time of writing) in the driver’s championship would indicate, and will be back in 2023. Hamilton, meanwhile, has been fascinating to watch struggle after years of dominance, as F1’s legion of new fans were introduced to the concept of porpoising.

In retrospect, there was really only one driver to watch in 2022: Max Verstappen, who was the clear winner of the 2022 Driver’s Championship.

Team to watch

 Chelsea’s pick: McLaren. McLaren finished in fifth place, 14 points adrift of nearest rivals Alpine. Like Daniel Ricciardo, I’m an optimist and did not anticipate his season (career?) ending the way it did. Lando Norris, meanwhile, has gone from strength to strength, and I look forward to seeing Oscar Piastri next to him in the papaya next season.

Kali’s pick: Red Bull. They certainly were the team to watch – neither Ferrari nor Mercedes could match their straight line speed, or strategy. Focus of a different sort turned to Red Bull in the latter stages of the season, with first rumours, then confirmation that they had breached the cost cap, and many fanciful theories about the kinds of penalties the FIA would impose, including stripping Verstappen of his 2021 driver’s championship, which was clearly never on the cards. In the end, Red Bull were fined $US 7 million and lost 10% of their wind tunnel testing time, which team principal Christian Horner called draconian, while his counterparts in the paddock thought was tantamount to a slap on the wrist with a wet bus ticket.

Speaking of Mr Spice…

Christian Horner – Hero or Villain?

Chelsea: Horner certainly lost some credibility in Brazil after the controversy over Max refusing to cede a place to Checo. In previous years I’ve admired his openness with journalists, but now with a champion to protect he’s moved into weasel mode. I’m sure his eyes got beadier this season. This, of course, is all part of the game of F1, but in my opinion we could all afford to BMG (Be More Guenther).

Kali: Season 2022 has not materially improved my perception of Mr Spice. But there is no denying that he leads a very successful team that seems on the brink of starting a new phase of true domination. At times he has appeared petulant (he’s not alone in that among team principals in the paddock), particularly in relation to the cost cap, and in boycotting Sky Sport over comments Ted Kravitz made about the controversial end to the 2021 season.

Favourite Grand Prix

 Chelsea: For me, a good race is marked by how much attention I draw to myself on the couch with involuntary yelps and flailing (both cats and family are bewildered non-fans). Based on that niche criteria, it has to be Silverstone, with heart-in-mouth crash at the start followed by a satisfying victory for Carlos Sainz. I have no sentiment for Monaco but love a wet race, and this one included as good an example of Ferrari strategic blunders as you’ll find.

Kali: My pre-season pick was the Australian Grand Prix, but this year’s Melbourne event was marked by the disappointment of realising that Mercedes had not been sandbagging, and their car was… not good. Verstappen did not finish the race, which flattered the other teams, with  a Leclerc win for Ferrari, Red Bull’s Sergio Perez as runner-up, George Russell rounding out the podium for Mercedes, and Hamilton finishing fourth.

In review, I enjoyed Silverstone (“Through goes Hamilton!”), found Monaco boring, which probably marks me as one of those “new, post-Drive To Survive fans”, and also recall enjoying Montreal and Hungary. But to be honest, at the end of a very long season, they start to blur a bit.

Review of 2022 Predictions

 Chelsea: 1/2 (Verstappen won the Driver’s Championship, Mercedes did not win the Constructor’s).

Kali: 1/2 (Hamilton did not win the Driver’s Championship, but Red Bull won the Constructor’s).

What to look forward to in 2023

 Chelsea: 

• Vegas will be a spectacle, at least the first time round. I look forward to Brundle’s hated grid walk at this track in particular, though like Kali I have doubts about how well it will actually race. Will it matter?
• I love a new driver, and none come with more hype than Nyck de Vries after his ninth-place finish at Monza.
• How many races is too many? I expect to see more in the way of driver burnout – illness, on-track brain explosions, and reduced patience with media.

Kali: 

• The addition of Las Vegas to the calendar. It’ll likely be chaotic, and possibly a boring race with limited overtaking opportunities, but if ever a city fitted in with the modern ethos of Formula 1, it’s Vegas.
• Someone to challenge Max Verstappen and Red Bull. Whether it’s Russell, Hamilton, Leclerc, Sainz or someone new, it would be good to see a bit more variety at the top of the podium.
• What becomes of Daniel Ricciardo, who lost his McLaren seat in circumstances that did not reflect well on McLaren or him. The paddock would be the poorer for the absence of the Honey Badger’s personality, but it does seem as if his best days as a driver are behind him, and the retrospectoscope will always query his decision to defect from Red Bull to Renault in 2019.
• I could do with never hearing the word “porpoising” again.

Final Thoughts:

Chelsea:

As a Ferrari fan, it’s been a tough one. As a Blackcaps fan, my heart comes pre-calloused, and the sense of doom was strangely familiar. The strategic failings were confounding and bring a sense that something must change – whether or not that involves team boss Mattia Binnotto remains to be seen. I hope for more from them next season.

Red Bull’s dominance was impressive but dull by the close of the season. It was heartening to see Mercedes’ performance improvements through the season with 2023 hopefully bringing more balance and competition to a very long year.

Kali:

This was my first season following Formula 1 in its entirety, and I’ve enjoyed it, despite the hostile timezones of many of the races. I have a new appreciation for non-Mercedes/Hamilton fans who must have found the 2014-2020 years boring and frustrating. While it’s good to see the end of one team clearly dominating, I do hope that Ferrari sort out their strategy and reliability, because the Tifosi deserve it, and I don’t know how much more sad Charles Leclerc I can take.

I’m not sure that I will ever understand the vagaries of the FIA, nor their attempts to level the playing field. But the lack of clarity over penalties and rulings sometimes adds comedic value to otherwise boring races.

A special mention to Chelsea, Aiden McLaughlin and Gavin Huet for patiently answering my naive questions almost every Monday morning, and sympathising with my “Poor Sharl Eclair” comments.

And on the very last note, the retirement of Sebastian Vettel hit me harder than I thought it would. I wasn’t a fan of the sport in his early, brash, years, or even when he won his four World Championships with Red Bull, but the Seb of recent years, Dad and all-round good guy who was not afraid to speak his mind and speak up for causes he believed in, and possibly more importantly, against issues he disagreed with, will be sorely missed. Danke Seb.

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