2022 F1 Season
22 races · Red Bull RB18
The 2022 season ushered in a technical revolution: the return of ground effect, with cars designed to follow each other more closely and encourage overtaking. The new rules reshuffled the grid and gave Ferrari its best car in years, the F1-75.
Charles Leclerc started flying, winning two of the first three races and leading the championship with authority. But the season unravelled completely for Ferrari: a string of failures (he retired while leading at Barcelona and Baku, and crashed out of the lead in France) and a chain of strategy errors squandered a lead that had looked solid.
Max Verstappen and Red Bull capitalised on every slip with relentless consistency. The Dutchman fought back, strung together wins to reach fifteen in the year (a matched record) and sealed his second world title with four races to spare.
Drivers' Champion
Max Verstappen
Red Bull RB18
Constructors' Champion
Red Bull Racing
22 races
Ver en españolKey moment
"Leclerc retires at Barcelona while comfortably leading, the symbol of Ferrari's cursed season."
The 2022 grid, car by car
The 10 teams that raced in 2022, ordered by how good we rate the car. It is our own judgement, not an official figure: what it is worth is that the same yardstick is applied to every season since 1988, so you can compare eras.
| # | Team | Our rating | Drivers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Red Bull | 98 | Max Verstappen · Sergio Perez |
| 2 | Ferrari | 94 | Charles Leclerc · Carlos Sainz |
| 3 | Mercedes | 90 | Lewis Hamilton · George Russell |
| 4 | Alpine | 81 | Fernando Alonso · Esteban Ocon |
| 5 | McLaren | 79 | Lando Norris · Daniel Ricciardo |
| 6 | Alfa Romeo | 78 | Valtteri Bottas · Zhou Guanyu |
| 7 | Haas | 73 | Kevin Magnussen · Mick Schumacher |
| 8 | AlphaTauri | 72 | Pierre Gasly · Yuki Tsunoda |
| 9 | Aston Martin | 69 | Sebastian Vettel · Lance Stroll |
| 10 | Williams | 64 | Alexander Albon · Nicholas Latifi |
How 2022 actually ended
The official final standings, from Bahrain Grand Prix to Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. This is the real result, not the simulation above.
| Driver | Points | Wins | Podiums | Poles |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1Max VerstappenRed Bull | 454 | 15 | 17 | 7 |
| 2Charles LeclercFerrari | 308 | 3 | 11 | 9 |
| 3Sergio PérezRed Bull | 305 | 2 | 11 | 1 |
| 4George RussellMercedes | 275 | 1 | 8 | 2 |
| 5Carlos SainzFerrari | 246 | 1 | 9 | 3 |
| 6Lewis HamiltonMercedes | 240 | 0 | 9 | 0 |
| 7Lando NorrisMcLaren | 122 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 8Esteban OconAlpine F1 Team | 92 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Verstappen took it by 146 points, which at that distance stops being a fight and becomes a formality. 5 different drivers won across 22 races, and the champion could still afford to retire 2 times.
And was it the most dominant car of all? We measured it by putting the same driver in the best car of every season since 1988: what is the most dominant car in F1 history.
Official FIA standings via Jolpica (formerly Ergast).
What if 2022 had been raced 100 times?
We took the real 2022 grid (every car with its performance and reliability, every driver with his rating) and re-ran the full 22-race championship 100 times.
| Driver | Avg. finish | Titles |
|---|---|---|
| Max Verstappenreal championRed Bull | P1 | 100% |
| Charles LeclercFerrari | P2.3 | 0% |
| Sergio PerezRed Bull | P2.7 | 0% |
| Carlos SainzFerrari | P4.5 | 0% |
| Lewis HamiltonMercedes | P4.6 | 0% |
| George RussellMercedes | P5.9 | 0% |
Max Verstappen wins 100% of the simulated championships. Runner-up Charles Leclerc manages 0%: with that machinery, the real result was very nearly the only one available.
Tags
What if Senna, Hamilton or Alonso had driven the 2022 championship-winning car?
Hypotheses from 2022
Drivers of 2022
Keep reading
What we have measured about 2022 and about what decided it, with our own numbers.
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