Annaleece Longmore

With the 2022 season coming to a close, it’s time to look back on some of the most memorable, jaw-dropping, and shocking moments of this year’s F1 season.

Ferrari’s fighting chance

As the season began, it seemed that Ferrari had developed a car which would take them to the chequered flag all year.

Celebrations began in March, with Charles Leclerc’s win in the first race of the season in Bahrain. This was a huge accomplishment, as it was Ferrari’s first Grand Prix win since Sebastian Vettel’s 2019 victory in Singapore.

Ferrari and their fans were in high hopes, especially when Leclerc secured a second win in Australia.

“it appeared that there was a car that would finally challenge Max Verstappen’s and Sergio Perez’s Red Bulls”

Finally, it appeared that there was a car that would finally challenge Max Verstappen’s and Sergio Perez’s Red Bulls. The new regulations seemed to be allowing for more wheel-to-wheel action.

Sergio Perez’s tearful Monaco victory

Back in May, Perez crashed during the Saturday qualifying, colliding with Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari, which led to a red flag of the session.

Although this prevented Perez’s teammate Max Verstappen from completing his final qualifying lap, all was not lost for the Red Bulls.

Wet conditions on the track meant that the race started late. However, once it began, battles between Perez and Sainz continued throughout the race.

Redeeming himself from the Barcelona GP, Perez took his third victory in Formula 1.

Zhou Guanyu’s Silverstone crash

This dramatic British GP in July began with a shocking collision and crash. It was difficult to understand who had collided with who at first.

Later, it was shown through onboard camera POVs that Pierre Gasly made contact with George Russell’s Mercedes as the race began, leading George to collide with Zhou Guanyu.

“Zhou Guanyu’s car spun and flipped upside down”

Trackside spectators and fans watching from home held their breath as Zhou Guanyu’s car spun and flipped upside down, before dragging along the gravel and hitting the outside barriers – with fans only metres away.

This collision led to the race being red-flagged and later restarted, with Russell and Zhou both receiving DNFs.

Thankfully, all drivers involved were unharmed, but this incident only went to confirm that the use of the halo is essential for driver safety.

Sebastian Vettel announces his retirement

After 15 years in F1, in July the four-time world champion announced that he would be hanging up his racing boots after this season and his Aston Martin contract, ended.

Vettel confirmed his retirement in a statement on Instagram saying “The decision to retire has been difficult one for me to take, and I have spent a lot of time thinking about it,” however Vettel wants to take time to spend time with his family and reflect of what he wants to focus on next.

“The decision to retire has been difficult one for me to take, and I have spent a lot of time thinking about it,”

Max Verstappen wins second World Drivers Championship in Japan

Verstappen and Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc had begun the season with a battle for P1.

Reliability issues and strategy blunders for Ferrari meant that Leclerc’s chances for a WDC quickly slipped away.

For example, in Hungary, Leclerc’s pace was already plummeting, but a poor strategic choice of soft tyres only led to further time loss.

However, the Japanese GP started with intense weather conditions, leaving drivers with very minimal visibility.

After the race was red-flagged, the originally 53-lap race was shortened and only 75% of the scheduled race distance was completed.

This left fans and those in the paddock confused about whether full points would be awarded.

Verstappen himself admitted his confusion after the race ended: “When I crossed the line I had no clue what they were going to decide with the points. The plan was to win the race but once I crossed the line I didn’t know if it was full points, half points or 75% points.”

Haas’ Kevin Magnussen achieves pole position in Brazil

Danish driver Magnussen started the Brazil weekend off by achieving pole position for the sprint race.

There are mixed emotions among fans surrounding sprint races. Some say they take the spotlight away from the Sunday race. However, some argue that they add variety to race weekends.

Following George Russell’s spin-off into the gravel during qualifying, came a surprise turn of events for Haas and Magnussen.

Magnussen’s engineer Mark Slade told him: “You’re P1, mate.” This definitely came as a pleasant surprise to the driver.

As time went on to recover Russell’s Mercedes, heavy rain began. With just over 8 minutes left as Q3 resumed, it was clear that no driver would be able to out-qualify the Haas driver.

In a following Sky Sports F1 interview, Magnussen said: “I got back this year after a year out and it’s just been an amazing journey so thank you.”

George Russell’s first F1 race victory

Brazil this year was a great success for Russell and Mercedes.

Securing his sprint race victory on Saturday allowed Russell to start on pole on Sunday, granting him a great start.

At the Sunday race Mercedes secured their first 1-2 victory together. The British driver achieved his first grand prix win, becoming the 20th British F1 race winner!

Verstappen achieves the most wins in an F1 season

As the season has come to a close, no one can argue against the domination of Verstappen and his Red Bull.

Red Bull has succeeded in developing another car that is not only fast but reliable. This allowed Verstappen to finish the 2022 season with 15 grand prix wins!

The dutchman broke the records held by F1 legends such as Michael Schumacher, who had 13/18 wins in 2004, and Sebastian Vettel, who had 13/19 wins in the 2013 season.

Doughnuts for Sebastian

Following his retirement announcement, the Abu Dhabi season finale concluded with a celebration of the German driver and his successful career.

Drivers such as Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez, and Charles Leclerc got involved in the doughnut celebrations after the race.

Danke Seb!

 

After this year’s events, we can only hope for another year of exciting racing next year!

 

Feature image by Abed Ismail on Unsplash. No changes were made to this image. Image license found here.

Annaleece is an 19 year-old student journalist in her second year at the University of Sheffield, studying Journalism Studies. You can find her on Twitter at @JournoAnnaleece.

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