My F1 2022 Midseason Report

Arthur Viana, 21 July, 2022

The last F1 event we had was the Austrian Grand Prix, and that means the 2022 F1 season has reached its midpoint, as the race was the 11th out of 22 in the calendar (it was supposed to be 23 races, but the Russian GP was cancelled). Now that we’ve got this far, let’s see who the best and worst drivers of the season were until now, not only counting their positions in the Drivers’ Championship, but also their performances with the cars they were given.

P20: Nicholas Latifi – Williams

Latifi is not doing a good job this year. Last season he gave the fans a little hope after some good performances and even scoring a few points, but in 2022, he went back to square one. Avoidable incidents, bad decisions, and no points, even when he squeezed himself into Q3 at the British Grand Prix. Honestly, I’d be surprised if he manages to keep his seat for 2023, even with the amount of money he brings to the team.

P19: Lance Stroll – Aston Martin

Stroll has shown basically the same issues as his Canadian colleague Latifi, with a special highlight to “avoidable incidents”. Who can forget Baku, when Stroll crashed in qualifying not only once, but twice in the same lap? Because the first bump wasn’t enough to destroy the car. He’s been underperforming and that’s a fact, struggling a lot to score points while his teammate Vettel has been carrying the already weak Aston Martin. However, he’ll obviously keep his seat for 2023 as his dad owns the team.

P18: Daniel Ricciardo – McLaren

It pains me to remember how badly Daniel Ricciardo is performing. Sure, the McLaren car is not near as good as it was last season, but Ricciardo makes sure to always let us know that every weekend. He’s getting destroyed by his teammate Lando Norris, with a 47-point gap between the two, and most of the McLaren fans have had enough of his minimal contribution in the battle against Alpine in the Constructors’ Championship.

P17: Yuki Tsunoda - AlphaTauri

Pretty irrelevant season so far for the Japanese driver. He had an alright start, but things have only gone downhill since. A lot of quiet races, never really doing anything impressive.?

P16: Guanyu Zhou – Alfa Romeo

The only rookie of the season is basically doing what most people were expecting him to do. Scoring points every now and then and having some nice battles in the midfield. However, it’s important to mention that he’s been very unlucky with his car and with incidents that he just couldn’t avoid. Sure, his pace could be better but for a rookie, he’s giving an “ok” impression and shouldn’t have any troubles keeping his seat for 2023.

P15: Mick Schumacher – Haas

Thank God for the last two races, right? He would definitely be lower on this ranking if it wasn’t for them. Schumacher was struggling a lot to score his first points, with his teammate Kevin Magnussen performing a lot better than him. But back-to-back points in Silverstone and Spielberg with a deserved Driver of the Day prize at the last one made him jump a few positions. Hopefully this will be turning point of the season for him, and he’ll start getting on that top 10 more often.

P14: Alexander Albon – Williams

The first of the two drivers that retuned to F1 in 2022 is doing better than expected. Driving what is the worst car of the grid, he’s been performing really well and scored all of the three points that Williams has in the championship. Albon is doing all he can with his second chance in F1 and is not disappointing anyone.

P13: Pierre Gasly - AlphaTauri

Gasly is having a similar season to his teammate Tsunoda, but with more bad luck than just lack of pace. Surely, if he wasn’t getting caught in random crashes, he’d be much higher in the championship. Well, I guess that’s one of the disadvantages of having a mediocre car and having to start most races at the lower midfield.

P12: Sebastian Vettel – Aston Martin

One more driver that’s having just an “ok” season, but in my opinion, that’s more due to the car he’s driving. Even though Vettel’s qualifying pace isn’t ideal most of the time, he’s still carrying Aston Martin, scoring 15 of the 18 points that Aston Martin has, and that’s with two less races than his teammate.

P11: Kevin Magnussen – Haas

A very pleasant surprise. Came into the team to replace Mazepin with no time for real testing and after being an entire season away from F1, and still managed to finish P5 on his first race in 2022. He currently has 10 more points than his teammate Schumacher, and the two of them – if they manage to keep their good form – could bring Haas to a different level in the future.

P10: Valtteri Bottas – Alfa Romeo

Starting our top 10, we have Bottas. He’s really found his place after leaving Mercedes. He seems comfortable with the car, has scored 90% of the points that Alfa Romeo has, and he’s showing a lot of his overtaking abilities, something that was hard for him to show when he had to stay behind Hamilton on every occasion. Good job, Valtteri. Keep it up.

P9: Lando Norris – McLaren

Norris is having an average season in terms of points scored, but in termis of performances, he’s doing what’s already the usual for him: very good. He shows more and more why he’s already one of the best drivers on the grid every race weekend, pushing his car, which is at best a 6/10, to its limit. Something that his teammate, Daniel Ricciardo, is not able to do. Norris is carrying McLaren – again – and he deserves this spot.

P8: Fernando Alonso – Alpine

He only gets better with time. Age is definitely not a problem for Alonso, as he’s about to turn 41 and is still bringing good performances and points for Alpine. Starting in P2 in Canada was the highlight of his season so far, and he could’ve very well gotten Pole Position in Australia if it wasn’t for his car problems. In fact, if he wasn’t so unlucky, he’d probably be higher in the championship, and the gap to Ocon wouldn’t be as big as it is.

P7: Esteban Ocon – Alpine

What a good season Ocon is having. Definitely his best season in F1 so far: decent car, amazing consistency and almost no mistakes whatsoever, and that’s what made me put him one place higher than Alonso. Hopefully he can keep doing a good job.

P6: Carlos Sainz – Ferrari

Sainz’ season is looking better now, but the start was close to awful. His mistakes in Australia and Imola were an important part of the big advantage that Red Bull has in the championship and has cost him some valuable points. Fortunately, he managed to recover, get some podiums and even his first ever race victory in F1.

P5: Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes

Here’s another driver who had a bad start but managed to recover. After some awful weekends in Saudi Arabia and Imola while his teammate, George Russell, was doing incredibly well, Hamilton has gotten some better results. His performance is Silverstone was amazing, and he’s showing that the Hamilton we all knew is still there.

P4: Sergio Pérez – Red Bull

Very consistent season so far for Checo, with a few podiums and even a win in Monaco. Not much else to say, he’s been pretty good and definitely better than last season, as he’s actually helping Red Bull in the Constructors’ Championship.

P3: George Russell – Mercedes

What an amazing season Russell’s having. He adapted instantly in the new team, showing that he’s there to stay. Russell has finished in the top-5 in every race, except for Silverstone, where he was involved in a crash that took out multiple cars. He had good races staring from the front and from the back, gaining the nickname of “Mr. Consistency” for a very good reason. Impressive.

P2: Charles Leclerc - Ferrari

Excellent season for Leclerc. Finally showing all of his talents in F1, Leclerc could’ve been closer to P1 in the championship if it wasn’t for his bad luck and his own team’s bad strategies.

P1: Max Verstappen – Red Bull

Just like his title rival, Verstappen is having an almost flawless season. It’s even hard to say a lot about these two, they have been exceptional, and the results speak for themselves. However, I have to put Verstappen in P1 because he does have more race wins and a big bap to Leclerc in the championship even with two DNFs, and with the Ferrari car being faster on more occasions than the Red Bull.