Winners & Losers - Formula One Season 2022

With the Formula One Season over and all of the seats taken for next season, we can broadly recap the last season. I want to highlight the major losers and winners of past season. It will be a very general list but I hope that most of you will agree with me on these ones. I will also try to give my reasoning to why I chose the certain people or teams into this category. With that being said, let’s get started.

Max Verstappen & Red Bull -Winners

First things first, we need to talk about the World Champion. I think it is safe to say that Max is a winner from the 2022 season. Although he had some smaller hick ups in the beginning he managed to set a new winning record. Yes, he somehow managed to destroy this great season at the end by not helping Checo getting the second place but all in all, I would say that the person who won the title is definitely a winner.

Furthermore, the Red Bull car was without a doubt the best performing one on the track under race conditions. I think therefore, the Red bull team and engineers around this car deserve to be called winners as well. Without there effort, Max definitely would not have won his second world title. I think for next season, there will be yet again a very potent Red Bull car with two very strong drivers. But I also have the feeling that Max will soon enter the haters loop where he will get criticized by the F1 fans for anything that he is doing. It happened with Vettel and Hamilton and it will surely happen to Verstappen if he continues to win like that.

George Russell - Winner

Another winner is definitely George Russell. Many people might have forgotten this, but it was his first season in the Mercedes and despite the poor car performance he was still manage to outperform this car several times. He placed in the end in front of Lewis Hamilton who is a multiple world champion which is honestly very impressive. Furthermore, he managed to secure his first ever Grand Prix win which will also give him some ego for the next season.

I think that Mercedes will be much stronger than this year and we will definitely see more wins from the young Brit. I am predicting a hard fight with Lewis Hamilton but I also see George still being the second driver there. He will need to hold back until Hamilton retires. Only then he will be able to claim the number one spot in this team.

Team Haas – Winner

Last but not least, I think that F1 team Haas are definitely winners throughout this season. While being a joke with two rookie drivers and almost no points in the last season, they were able to turn this season around! They were able to establish themselves into the midfield teams and pulled away from Williams. Furthermore, they were able to get their first pole position, although it was more luck than skill involved.

Unfortunately, they had some disagreements at the end and let Mick Schumacher go. From a team stand point, I can totally understand that the results were not the ones that you would expect from a driver that dreams of world titles. But on the other hand, you must admit that Schumacher had a very bad car last season and was sacrificed for the more experienced Kevin Magnussen this season. All in all a very solid performance by the Haas team.

Lewis Hamilton & Merc - Loser

Now off we go to the other side of the spectrum where we find the already mentioned Lewis Hamilton and the Mercedes team. First things first, Mercedes did not really bring a championship car to the track. Despite that, both drivers were able to claim some podiums throughout the season. Nevertheless, it was definitely not the result that Mercedes has hoped for and therefore, the next season will be very crucial for them.

The same could be said about Lewis Hamilton. It is understandable that after last years steal by Max Verstappen, he definitely was demotivated. I think in the middle of the season you could see that Lewis was more struggling with the car and was not focusing on his own performance while George was able to score valuable points. I think that next season will be a do-or-die season for him. I can not imagine him driving for any longer and I think he will see next season as hos last. If he is able to win, he will be the record holder of championships and definitely a legend of this sport.

Mick Schumacher & Danny Ricciardo

Next up we have drivers that severely underperformed in their cars and therefore have lost their seats. While Mick is still searching, Danny will be a reserve driver for Red Bull which can be very interesting if you ask me. Nevertheless, both of the drivers have skill and talent. Their problem was either their team or the car. Both of them were outperformed by their teammates in a very dominant way and it makes sense that their teams want to change something on their positions. I think it will be hard for them to get a seat in the next seasons but this sport is full of surprises. You should never say never.

Team Ferrari

Last but not least we have team Ferrari here. It is still a mystery to me how they were not able to place Charles closer to Verstappen in this season. From dumb mistakes during a pit stop to mistakes in the strategy and hilarious radio messages. This team looked like it was constantly struggling with other tea, internal problems rather than focusing on the track. Their car was defiantly able to win this championship, but in this sport it is not enough to have talented drivers and have a great car. The team internal must work as well, and this did not happen for Ferrari this year. I am very curious if Binotto will keep his job after this disastrous season full of memes.

Published by ga38jem on
Sports Talk Social
On 27th November 2022