“It was a huge thrill for me when I saw the 2022 cars first race and we experienced two or three cars racing alongside each other; we hadn’t seen that before. Now you can run hard behind another car for several laps without issues.”
As the season of regulatory change began, the question was which team had best interpreted those new regulations and produced a car that was fast and reliable. It seemed initially Ferrari was that team, with Charles Leclerc winning the season-opening race in Bahrain, while world champion Max Verstappen and his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez both failed to finish. Max bounced back in Saudi Arabia, narrowly beating Leclerc after a race-long battle. But in Australia, Verstappen had another retirement, while Leclerc won again. Perez was second, and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz third. After three races, Verstappen was way behind Leclerc in the points, and Red Bull was thinking they had a fast, but unreliable car.
The Mercedes drivers, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, had picked up a podium each, even though Mercedes were lamenting the fact that the car was way off the pace of the Ferrari and Red Bull cars. Worse still, the car had no barge boards and appeared too low to the ground, and was suffering from what was quickly dubbed as “porpoising,” as the car at speed seemed to be going up and down in an action reminiscent of a porpoise, giving the drivers an uncomfortable ride. More particularly, it was having an adverse effect on pace and movability, and clearly lacked Brawn’s concept of raceability.
The championship would be between Ferrari and Red Bull, with the former appearing poised to have its first champion driver since Kimi Raikkonen won in 2007. But Verstappen had other ideas. He won at Imola and then at a new venue in Miami, although Leclerc was hanging tough, with third and second-place finishes in both of those races. On to Spain, and Verstappen won again after Leclerc lost power while leading the race and failed to finish.
It was cruel luck, and literally the turning point of the season. On to Monaco, where Verstappen would run into problems during qualifying because Perez, who already had the fastest time, crashed, blocking the track and ending qualifying. He would go to win the race from Sainz, with Verstappen and Leclerc next. Perhaps Perez would be Verstappen’s main challenger? But you sensed Verstappen had it under control, which he did, with victories in the next two races in Azerbaijan and Canada.
Returning to Silverstone - where in 2021, Hamilton had punted Verstappen off the track in the opening lap - to add to the acrimony building between the 2021 title contenders, Verstappen had an ailing car and could only finish sixth. The opening lap saw one of the most dramatic crashes you will ever witness in F1. Tagged by another car at the first corner, the Alfa Romeo of rookie driver Guanyu Zhou flipped over and slid upside-down towards the tyre wall at great speed. It did another flip after hitting the tyres, and then slotted down between the tyres and the catchment fence. Zhou was trapped, and the race red-flagged whilst Zhou was retrieved from his car, remarkably unhurt.
When racing resumed, it initially became a battle between Leclerc, Sainz, Perez and Lando Norris, but with about five laps to go, they were joined by Hamilton and Fernando Alonso in the Alpine. The sort of close racing and wheel-to-wheel action that Brawn had hoped for came to life in a thrilling finish, with Sainz prevailing to win his first grand prix.
On to Austria, and Leclerc beat Verstappen, with Hamilton third, the Mercedes slowly but surely closing the competitive gap to Red Bull and Ferrari. But it was Max again in France, where Leclerc started on pole, as he did nine times this season, only to crash out while leading, with Hamilton finishing second and Russell third.
Hungary was next up after the summer break, and Verstappen won the race despite starting from 10th on the grid. The question now was not whether he would win back-to-back championships, but rather when he would clinch it. He followed up the Hungarian victory with victories at Spa, Monza and his home race at Zandvoort. That was a run of five consecutive wins. Singapore was a bit of a blip for Max, who only finished seventh, but not for Red Bull, as Perez won. It was also where we first heard rumours that Red Bull had exceeded the FIA cost cap by millions, and could possibly be deducted points or even disqualified from the championship.
On to Japan, and Max’s 12th win of the season meant he was again world champion. He then went on to win in Mexico and Brazil and the season finale in Abu Dhabi, to set a new record of 15 wins in one season. The 25-year old had dominated the season after a sketchy start. Leclerc just pipped Perez for second place in the championship, after finishing second in Abu Dhabi. But the knives were out from the other teams, as Red Bull was found guilty of breaching the budget cap by £1.86 million, fined £6m, and will have a 10 per cent reduction in wind-tunnel time in 2023.
Ferrari had started as equal favourites with Red Bull after pre-season testing, but while Leclerc ended up with three wins, he was a whopping 146 points behind on the points table. Perez, who had two race victories, was another three points back, just falling short of providing Red Bull with a 1-2 in the drivers’ championship. In addition to Sainz’s maiden victory in the British GP, Russell also had his first F1 win in the penultimate race in Brazil, with Hamilton second, proving Mercedes had made a great comeback after an auspicious start. It was the first season since joining F1 in 2007 that Lewis had not won a race.
Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto has now resigned from his position, basically taking the blame for some poor race strategy and reliability issues. Former Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicalli, who is now the FIA president, says he knows what Binotto has had to deal with, having resigned from the role himself in 2014 after just three races, when the team had started that season poorly.
“When you are second for Ferrari, it is something that is not enough,” he told Sky Sports. “I don’t want to get into the dynamics of the team - for sure, the only thing I want now is to wish him the best for the future.”
Ferrari has reportedly set its sights on Alfa Romeo boss Fred Vasseur to replace Binotto, if his team will release him.
F1 journalist Peter Windsor has suggested the “stunning-looking car” Ferrari produced “flattered to deceive very early in the season, and I don’t think that car was ever quite as good as we thought it was, and by the time Red Bull got their car worked out, really it was only in qualifying when that Ferrari shone.”
In the end, Red Bull produced a car that won 17 out of its 22 races, the sort of dominance McLaren enjoyed in 1988 and 1989, that Ferrari saw from 2000 to 2004, and which Mercedes had from 2014 to 2020. Red Bull also won for four consecutive seasons with Sebastian Vettel as champion, between 2010 and 2013, but two of those championships nearly went the way of Alonso’s Ferrari, so the dominance was not complete.
Verstappen is now collecting all the awards in a season where he took his winning total to 35 wins, fifth on the all-time list. Dutchman Jan Lammers, a former F1 driver, believes Verstappen’s success wasn’t a case of domination; rather, he had to work for it.
“I don’t know if all of us realise how special this year was,” he told Motorsport.com.
“Usually such victories come from dominance, but the most special thing of all is, Max hasn’t dominated. The last few races looked easy, but he still had to fight for it, and even started the season with a bit of adversity.”
“When you look at all the races won that way, then that is very special. Every motorsport enthusiast should be grateful that [they] are part of this generation. I think what he’s done this year is just the Max he’s been since he was 14, 15 or 16.”
“Max is someone who is always there and always on. George Russell comes closest in that regard. He is also a constant performer. Statistically, it was Max’s best season, but I think he’s always been like that.”
Sources: F1.com, Sky Sports F1, Motorsport.com
