Max Verstappen a double F1 World Champion

The 2022 Formula 1 season brought significant changes with the introduction of new cars under the revised technical regulations. Surprisingly, Mercedes failed to meet expectations, struggling to maintain their dominant form. As a result, the battle for supremacy shifted between Red Bull and Scuderia Ferrari. However, Ferrari’s performance was marred by numerous mistakes, particularly in terms of strategy, revealing an area of weakness for the team. This allowed Red Bull and their driver Max Verstappen to seize control and secure both the Constructors’ and Driver World Championship titles with relative ease in the second half of the season.

Race Calendar

The 2022 calendar featured 22 races across 20 countries, maintaining one of the longest seasons in Formula 1 history.

The season saw the return of several circuits after pandemic disruptions, alongside the introduction of a brand-new venue in Miami.

Drivers and Constructors

The 2022 grid featured 10 teams and 22 drivers, including multiple reserve driver appearances throughout the season. The introduction of new technical regulations reshaped the competitive order, but the grid itself remained a mix of experienced champions and emerging talent.

2022 Season Analysis

Five different drivers stood on the top step of the podium in 2022, but the season was largely dominated by Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing, particularly in the second half of the year.

Verstappen’s dominance is clear: 15 victories, often from non-pole positions, highlighting both race pace and strategic execution.

Ferrari showed strong early-season form, with Leclerc winning two of the first three races and Sainz securing his maiden victory at Silverstone. However, inconsistency and strategic errors prevented them from sustaining a title challenge.

Elsewhere, standout moments included Pérez’s victories on street circuits, underlining his strength in high-risk environments, and Russell’s maiden win in Brazil — the only non-Red Bull victory in the second half of the season.

The podium count shows how quickly the balance of the season shifted.

Verstappen finished on the podium 17 times, underlining just how rarely he left big points on the table. Leclerc and Pérez followed with 11 each, while Sainz and Hamilton reached nine apiece and Russell added eight in his first year with Mercedes.

For the midfield teams, podium opportunities were rare. Lando Norris claimed McLaren’s only top-three finish of the year at Imola after Leclerc spun late in the race.

Consistency in the points told a similar story.

Verstappen and Russell each recorded 20 points finishes, the highest total on the grid. Pérez, Leclerc, and Hamilton were just behind on 19, while Norris stood out with 17 in a McLaren that was rarely quick enough to fight at the front.

Behind the top teams, Alpine emerged as the strongest midfield package. Ocon reached the top ten 16 times and Alonso 14, enough to secure fourth in the Constructors’ Championship.

There were also a few notable milestones:

• Mick Schumacher scored the first points of his Formula 1 career at Silverstone.
• Nyck de Vries finished ninth on his debut at Monza.
• Zhou Guanyu scored on debut in Bahrain and added two more points finishes during the season.

Sprint weekends returned in 2022 at Imola, the Red Bull Ring, and Interlagos.

The format stayed largely the same, but points were now awarded to the top eight finishers instead of only the top three. That made Sprint races more relevant to the championship, especially for the front-runners.

Verstappen extracted the most value, scoring 21 Sprint points across the three events. Sainz and Leclerc followed with 18 and 17, while Pérez and Russell also reached double figures. The spread of names lower down the chart, from Norris to Magnussen and Bottas, shows how much broader the Sprint points distribution became under the new system.

Fastest laps added another small layer to the picture of outright pace.

Verstappen recorded the most fastest laps with five. Russell followed with four, while Leclerc and Pérez took three each. Further down, Norris, Sainz, and Hamilton each managed two, and Zhou appeared on the list once.

What stands out is how concentrated these laps were among the leading teams: Red Bull, Ferrari, and Mercedes accounted for nearly all of them.

Reliability had a major influence on the 2022 season.

The DNF chart is notably compressed at the top. Sainz, Bottas, Alonso, and Tsunoda each suffered six retirements, while Albon, Latifi, Zhou, and Magnussen were close behind on five.

At the other end of the scale, Russell retired only once all season. That difference in reliability and race survival helps explain why he stayed so close to the front of the championship despite Mercedes rarely having the fastest car.

One of the most dramatic moments of the season came at Silverstone, where Zhou Guanyu’s high-speed crash on the opening lap served as a stark reminder of the risks involved, even in the modern era.

Point Progression

A season-long view of the Drivers’ Championship makes the turning point easy to spot.

Leclerc led the standings through the early rounds as Ferrari looked like the faster package. That changed by round six, when Verstappen moved ahead and never gave the lead back. From that point on, Red Bull’s combination of pace, reliability, and race execution steadily widened the gap.

Ferrari’s title challenge faded through a mix of strategic errors, reliability problems, and driver mistakes. By the final races, the more relevant battle was for second place, where Leclerc narrowly held off Pérez.

Further back, Russell enjoyed an excellent first season at Mercedes and finished ahead of Hamilton in the standings, while Sainz secured fifth place overall.

The Constructors’ Championship followed a similar pattern.

Red Bull Racing gradually broke clear of the field and secured its first Constructors’ title since 2013. Behind them, Ferrari did enough to stay ahead of Mercedes, despite the latter improving significantly over the second half of the year.

The closest fight was for fourth. Alpine ultimately beat McLaren, with the consistency of both Ocon and Alonso proving enough to overcome Norris’s standout individual season.

Conclusions and Final Standings

The 2022 season began with the promise of a genuine title fight, but it ended as a demonstration of Red Bull’s superiority.

Verstappen secured his second consecutive World Championship with a record 15 wins from 22 races, while Red Bull sealed its first Constructors’ crown of the hybrid era. Leclerc finished second, just ahead of Pérez, after Ferrari’s strong start gave way to too many missed opportunities.

For Mercedes, the year was disappointing by its own standards, but the team recovered well enough to take third and claim a breakthrough win with Russell in São Paulo. Behind the top three teams, Alpine won the battle for fourth, McLaren leaned heavily on Norris, and every team on the grid scored at least once.

Note: The data is compiled from the F1 Developer API (http://ergast.com/mrd/).