Happy Christmas for 2022

Basically the last post for 2022 as I am taking nearly three weeks off till January 9th with my family and try to enjoy Christmas. All that means is a Happy Christmas/Holidays to you all and see you in 2023.

Bye.

Part 2 of Formula 1 2022 Season Review (Top Formula 1 drivers of 2022 and final thoughts of Formula 1 2022)

Second part of my Formula 1 2022 Season Review, this post will includes my top 12 Formula 1 drivers of 2022. And my final thoughts of Formula 1 2022.

Starting of with My Top Formula 1 drivers of 2022, this is the part who was in my top 12 this season, not in championship order, not in championship order, so his list doesn't includes the likes of Daniel Ricciardo, Pierre Gasly or Alexander Albon to name a few, its just only opinion folks.

Anyway, here is my list below.

My Top Formula 1 drivers of 2022:

12. Kevin Magnussen (Haas) - Some impressive performances on his return to F1 this season, which includes a fifth place finish at Bahrain, and a pole postion at Sao Paulo.

11. Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin) - Final F1 season, impressive second half of the season includes sixth place finishes at Baku and Suzuka.

10. Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo) - Some impressive performances this season, which includes a fifth place finish at Imola and sixth place finishes at Bahrain and Barcalona.

9. Estiban Ocon (Alpine) - Like his team-mate fast and reliable, some impressive performances this season, which include a fifth place finish at the Red Bull Ring and a fourth place finish at Suzuka.

8. Lando Norris (McLaren) - Consistently fast, which include a third place finish at Imola.

7. Fernando Alonso (Alpine) - Despite his past 41, his still fast and reliable, which include a fifth place finishes at Silverstone, Spa and Sao Paulo.

6. Carlos Sainz, Jr. (Ferrari) - Some impressive performances so far this season, which includes a Grand Prix win at Silverstone.

5. Sir Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) - Some impressive drives this season despite not having a great car under him, which include two second place finished from Sir Lewis Hamilton at Paul Ricard, Hunganoring, Austin, Mexico City and Sao Paulo, could have won races at Austin and Sao Paulo.

4. Sergio Pérez (Red Bull) - Some impressive performances this season, consistently fast which includes Grand Prix wins at Monaco and Singapore.

3. George Russell (Mercedes) - Consistently fast and reliable, which include six third place finishes, seocnd place finish at Zandvoort, a pole postion at the Hunganoring, and a Grnad Prix win at Sao Paulo.

2. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) - Consistently fast where the car doesn't deserve, three Grand Prix wins, some impressive wins at Bahrian, Melbourne and the Red Bull Ring; he should have won more this season but due to unreliable car at Barcalona and Baku; poor tyre strategies at Monaco, Silverstone, the Hunganoring and Monza.

1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) - Best driver on the grid this season so far, with fifteen Grand Prix wins this season to concluded with his second drivers' championship.

Overall, possibly one of the most dominating seasons I have seen in Formula 1 despite it doesn't look like in times, seventeen Grand Prix wins out of twenty-two wins from Red Bull which include five one-two finishes to conclude winning their fifth F1 Constructors' Championship their first since 2013 ending Mercedes eight Constractors' Championships wins in a row.

While in the Drivers' Championship it was Max Verstappen to win of winning fifteen Grand Prixs' in a record breaking season, to win this seasons Drivers' Championship for his second F1 Drivers' title to conclude Formula 1 in 2022.

Bring on Formula 1 2023. Stay safe everyone.

Part 1 of Formula 1 2022 Season Review (the teams)

Two parter Formula One season review of the 2022 season. In this post I will review each team of 2022. Which, I will say one sentence that will be positive with each team. And one sentence that will be negative for each team. So starting with Red Bull below.

Red Bull:
+ Best car and driver on the grid with the RB18, seventeen wins from Red Bull, which includes two Grand Prix wins for Sergio Pérez; and a record breaking fifteen wins for Max Verstappen to conclude to win the 2022 F1 Drivers' Championship and Red Bull's first Constructors' Title since 2013.
- Double DNF in Bahrain and the death of Team Founder Dietrich Mateschitz back in late October.

Ferrari
+ Some great race performances from both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, Jr., which includes three Grand Prix wins for Leclerc at Bahrain, Melbourne and the Red Bull Ring and Sainz, Jr. won at Silverstone; only 323.5 points at this stage last season, 554 points this season at this stage a much better improvement from Ferrari to conclude second in the Constructor's standings.
- The team missed out on wins for Leclerc at Barcalona (Turbo), Monaco (tyre strategy), Baku (Turbo), Silverstone (not pitting for soft tyres late on), Paul Ricard (spun out), Hunganoring (pitting for wrong tyres) and Monza (tyre strategy); that cost Ferrari to challange both championships resulted the job of Team principal Mattia Binotto, Frédéric Vasseur will replace him for 2023.

Mercedes:
+ Grand Prix win for George Russell at Sao Paulo.
- Where to start, F1 W13 has been the third fastest car on the grid all season, no Grand Prix wins for Sir Lewis Hamilton (the first time in a season in his career); 613.5 points last season, 515 points this season resulted third in the Constructor's standings for Mercedes.

Alpine:
+ Fourth in the Constructor's standings, includes fourth place finish for Esteban Ocon at Suzuka; and strong performances from Fernando Alonso throughout the seasonincludes three fifth place finishes each for Alonso at Silverstone, Spa and Sao Paulo.
- Alonso could have finish on the podium at Montreal; apart from that the team have let themselves down on not renewing Alonso for 2023 (off to Aston Martin) and whats happened with Oscar Piastri (off to McLaren in 2023).

McLaren:
+ Some great race performances from Lando Norris, which include a third place finish for Norris at Imola.
-275 points at this stage last season, only 159 points this season at this stage, not great from McLaren and the team finished fifth in the Constructor's standings a long way off the top three, not acceptable from the team like McLaren resulting Daniel Ricciardo release a season early from his contract than planned.

Alfa Romeo:
+ Some impressive performances from Valtteri Bottas which include fifth place finsish at Imola and sixth place finishes at Bahrain and Barcalona; 13 points at this stage last season, 55 points at this stage this season means the team finished sixth in the Constructor's standings with Audi coming around the corner in 2026.
-Three DNF last season, ten DNFs this season includes poor reliablity from the Ferrari Power-Units and Guanyu Zhou's masssive crash at Silverstone that almost cost sixth in the Constructor's standings this season; the team is heavily relying on Bottas to score points.

Aston Martin:
+ Sixth place finishes for Sebastian Vettel at Baku and Suzuka, one sixth place finish for Lance Stroll at Singapore.
- AMR22 has been poor in qualifying which effect their race results (cost them sixth in Constructors'standing in the end), seventh in the Constructors' with 55 points this season compare to 77 points at this stage last season, the team need to do better going into the 2023 season and Fernando Alonso won't accept it.

Haas:
+ 0 points at this stage last season, 37 points at this stage this season means the team finished eighth in the Constructor's standings, some impressive performances from both Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher which includes fifth place for Magnussen at Bahrain at his return after a season away, pole psotion at Sao Paulo and for Schumacher for sixth place at the Red Bull Ring; much better improvements from Haas.
- Poor races from Mick Schumacher where he should have scored points like races in Miami, massive crashes at Jeddah and Monaco cost the team more points then they should resulting Schumacher being repalced by more experenced Nico Hülkenberg, this will help them going into the 2023 season; better season although their second half of the season the team only managed three points from the Red Bull Ring onwards.

Scuderia AlphaTauri:
+ Some great race performances from Pierre Gasly, which include a fifth place finish for Gasly at Baku.
- 142 points at this stage last season, only 35points this season at this stage, not great from AlphaTauri and the team finished ninth in the Constructor's standings, losing Pierre Gasly to Alpine for 2023 won't help the team going into 2023 to bounch back.

Williams: + Some impressive performances from Alexander Albon this season, which include strong performances at Melbourne (finishing tenth), Imola (finishing eleventh), Miami (finishing ninth) and Spa (finsihing tenth) after a season away; Nyck de Vries one-off performance at Monza (finsihing ninth) and for Nicholas Latifi (finishing ninth place finish at Suzuka).
- 23 points last season compare to 8 points this season at this stage, not great from Williams, slowest car on the grid; the team is heavily relying on Albon (this time) to score points, resulted the job of Team principal Jost Capito firing from the team, with unknown future for the team with current owners Dorilton Capital set to sell the team.

In part 2 of Formula 1 2022 Season Review my top 12 Formula 1 drivers of 2022. And my final thoughts of Formula 1 2022.

Mick Schumacher joins Mercedes as reserve driver for 2023

It was announce yesterday (15/12/22) that former Haas driver Mick Schumacher will be Mercedes's reserve driver during the 2023 season. Earlier in the day, Ferrari also confirmed that both them and Schumacher had decided to part ways following four years in partnership.

Schumacher will be the teams test driver and will focus on car development in the simulator, and will now move across to Mercedes, in providing support to Sir Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.

Schumacher made his Grand Prix debut in 2021 with Haas. But having struggled to deliver consistent form and just twelve points in 2022 with best finish of sixth at the Red Bull Ring, finsihed sixteenth in the Drivers'standings, he was comprehensively outpaced by team-mate Kevin Magnussen, Schumacher was let go from Haas at the end of the 2022 season replaced by Nico Hülkenberg for 2023.

A second change for Mick Schumacher.

Team Principal Shuffle, Frédéric Vasseur joins Ferrari as Team Principal, Andreas Seidl joins Alfa Romeo as CEO, Andrea Stella replaces Seidl as Team Principal at McLaren

It was confirmed on Tuesday (13/12/22) that Alfa Romeo F1 Team Principal Frédéric Vasseur has joined Ferrari as their new Team Principal replaces Mattia Binotto. Meanwhile, McLaren Team Principal Andreas Seidl joins Alfa Romeo (Sauber) as CEO leaving McLaren with immediate effect, while McLaren Performance Engineer Andrea Stella replaces Seidl as Team Principal at McLaren.

No surprise with the Frédéric Vasseur joins Ferrari as Team Principal, been rumored for a month he will replace Mattia Binotto at Ferrari. Andrea Seidl is a surprise in sorts leaving his Team Principal postion at McLaren to join Alfa Romeo as their new CEO, not surprise when Audi has bought the team for 2026 and Seidl was a former Team Prinicipal of Porsche's World Endurance Championship LMP1 Team more of a fast track getting him early. Although, Alfa Romeo have not replace Frédéric Vasseur as of yet as Team Principal.

New challanges ahead for Frédéric Vasseur, Andreas Seidl and Andrea Stella.

Jost Capito leaves as boss of Williams F1 Team

On Monday afternoon (12/12/22) it was announce by Williams F1 Team the departure of Principal and CEO Jost Capito as-well Technical Director FX Demaison. The team have struggled this season with only eight points and tenth in the Constructors' Standings.

No word who will replace Jost Capito as Team Principal, Jost Capito had been in charge since late 2020 as CEO, shortly after Williams’ takeover by private US investment firm Dorilton Capital.

They're some rumours that Dorilton Capital will sell the team during the off season. If so there could be a few options who could buy the team.

So what's next for Williams? Who knows.

'Sprint' races returns for 2023 for Six Grand Prixs

It was announced yesterday (7/12/2022) that Formula 1's 'sprint' races will return for next seasons Azerbaijan, Austrian, Belgian, Qatar, United States and São Paulo Grand Prix.

The F1 sprint race weekend will look like in 2022:

• Qualifying will move to Friday, set the grid for the sprint race.

• Sprint race will be shorter race around 100km/62 miles (between 14 to 24 laps).

• Points will be awarded to the top eight finishers (eight for first, seven for second, six for third, five for fourth, four for fifth, three for sixth, two for seventh, one for eighth).

• Sprint race race results will set the grid for Sundays Grand Prix.

Overall, this format work well enough for 2022, it gives Friday meaning. My thought is this, the format will work if there is overtaking in those races (São Paulo race from 2022 worked well) or Sunday race had full of drama (Imola and Red Bull Ring from 2022). I think it will work well at Baku, the Red Bull Ring, Spa, Austin and São Paulo, Doha is the odd one out for the choice this season I would have gone for a track like the Hungaroring or Suzuka would have been a better choice.

An intresting season ahead for Formula 1

Patrick Tambay 1949-2022

Patrick Tambay has passed away at the age of 73 on Sunday morning (4/12/21) after suffering from Parkinson's disease for several years. Condolences goes out to the family and friends of Patrick Tambay.

Started his Formula 1 career at Theodore Racing at the 1977 British Grand Prix. Tambay switch over to McLaren in 1978 for two seasons, then switching back to Theodore Racing and Leiger for 1981.

In 1982 Tambay switch over to Ferrari after the death of his close friend Gilles Villeneuve (Tambay's godfather to Jacques Villeneuven). He won his first Grand Prix at the German Grand Prix, in his fourth race for Ferrari. He took his second and last Grand Prix win in 1983 at Imola; driving with Villeneuve's #27.

Tambey switched to Renault in 1984 for two seasons, and then spent a year with the Haas Lola F1 team to finish off his Grand Prix career.

Patrick Tambay has been fourth in the F1 Drivers' Championship once in 1983, winning two Grand Prix wins altogether and winning two F1 Constructors' Championships for Ferrari in 1982 and 1983.

Gone but not forgotten.

R.I.P. Patrick Tambay

McLaren F1 Team appointed Alex Palou as a reserve driver

It was announce yesterday (1/12/22) that 2021 IndyCar champion Alex Palou will be McLaren's reserve driver during the 2023 season.

Palou agreed a deal to join McLaren Racing from 2023 but after a contractual saga remained at Chip Ganassi Racing for the upcoming IndyCar season.

As part of the resolution, Palou was permitted to link up with McLaren for Formula 1 outings, that do not conflict with his IndyCar commitments.

Palou made his FP1 debut at the US Grand Prix, per Formula 1’s new-for-2022 rookie regulation.