Source -
Tyres Northampton
P1 - Max Verstappen (454pts)
I doubt there are any plaudits I could throw at Verstappen that others haven't already sent his way. The domination from the Dutchman eclipses even Lewis Hamilton's better years with his record-breaking win tally for a single season. Of course, some controversy will remain over his team's cost cap breach, but Max still entered every Grand Prix as the bookie's favourite to win – and more often than not, they were right.
F1 2022 Rating - 10/10
P2 - Charles Leclerc (308pts)
The questionable decisions from Ferrari and early-season unreliability dashed Leclerc's title hopes before they got off the ground in earnest. However, to have bested Verstappen, Leclerc would need to be faultless, and he was not. His first vice-champion title is a decent consolation prize, but his crash in the French Grand Prix put him on a wavering run of form with zero wins after that trip to the barriers.
F1 2022 Rating - 7/10
P3 - Sergio Perez (305pts)
Another season as second fiddle to Verstappen for Perez, and this time Red Bull asked him to play number two even more. The Spanish GP team orders must've left a bad taste in the Mexican's mouth. Nonetheless, he never got close to beating his teammate aside from on the two tough-to-pass street circuits when Verstappen couldn't cruise up to his rear wing. 2022 cemented the fact Perez will never be champion when Max is in the sister car.
F1 2022 Rating - 7/10
P4 - George Russell (275pts)
Few drivers can walk into the lion's den and celebrate their taming of the beast. Jenson Button managed to best Lewis Hamilton after two seasons, while Nico Rosberg took years to defeat Hamilton after the Brit joined the Mercedes team Rosberg once called his own. George Russell has done better than two world champions, then, to have beaten Hamilton on his first attempt. Being the only Merc to cross the line in P1 in 2022 wasn't what I expected back in March, but Russell has laid down the gauntlet in a sensational first season with a top team.
F1 2022 Rating - 9/10
P5 - Carlos Sainz (246pts)
For a driver who defeated his teammate in equal machinery in 2021, I hoped for much more from Sainz in 2022. But, instead, the Spaniard's season got off to a tumultuous start with those self-inflicted DNFs in Melbourne and Imola. Then, Ferrari doubled up the pain with mechanical issues at Baku and Spielberg, but Sainz bounced back with his first-ever win at Silverstone to steady the ship. Too little too late, unfortunately, but that P1 finish will galvanise his 2023 hopes.
F1 2022 Rating - 6/10
P6 - Lewis Hamilton (240pts)
Hamilton's first winless season wasn't as disastrous as it sounds, but the lack of P1 trophies will hurt the seven-time champion. It's been a while since the Brit had to rely on picking up scraps if his rivals faltered. As his nine podiums attest, he collected scraps as often as possible. Sadly for Lewis, there were usually three or four better cars than his that all needed to screw up for him to win, and the younger heir-apparent took the spoils in Brazil on the one occasion things fell Mercedes' way.
F1 2022 Rating - 7/10
P7 - Lando Norris (122pts)
As strange as it sounds, I feel a little sorry for Lando Norris after 2022. He was again the best of the rest outside the 'big three' teams and the only driver to take a podium from the also-rans. However, it seemed like he was often lonely out on track, unable to compete with those ahead while also being much better than his rivals behind. But, of course, he won't mind another year to show he's one of F1's top talents. What's more, he arguably exceeded the speed of his car, a talent usually reserved for F1's best. He needs McLaren to develop a regular podium-challenging machine, and he'll reach the top step soon enough.
F1 2022 Rating - 9/10
P8 - Esteban Ocon (92pts)
Alpine's surge forward was easy to overlook in 2022. The French team doesn't have the fanatical following of Ferrari or the underdog status of Williams for many to notice how consistent they were. Ocon took points race after race in a season where he finally looked as strong as his potential before his 2019 season hiatus from F1. The long-term contract looks like it's helped the Frenchman settle down just in time for his highly-rated compatriot Pierre Gasly to join the Alpine ranks in 2023.
F1 2022 Rating - 8/10
P9 - Fernando Alonso (81pts)
Ocon might've outscored Alonso, but the Alpine's reliability problems hampered the two-time champion far more frequently. It was a(nother) relatively anonymous season for Alonso, save for his summer break political chaos by switching to Aston Martin. We may never know what 'El Plan' was, but he's still racing as well as any of F1's 20 racers and deserves his place in F1 despite his years. But, as in his McLaren years, when he decides he's unhappy, his overt displeasure infects those around him. I fear the 2023 switch to green could become poisonous sooner than later.
F1 2022 Rating - 7/10
P10 - Valtteri Bottas (49pts)
Bottas' 2022 was a shining example of a season of two halves. His switch to Alfa Romeo and the subsequent seven top 10s in the first nine rounds cemented his status as the safe driver the midfield team needed. As Alfa slowed down, so did those points-paying finishes. However, he did enough to have his new employer beat Haas in the constructors' standings to more than earn his annual salary. The Finn looks at home being out of the spotlight and seems happy playing the veteran driver role in these post-Mercedes years.
F1 2022 Rating - 8/10
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No matter your thoughts on Formula One's one-horse title race this year, plenty was going on throughout the grid to keep the sport interesting all season. Some drivers finished strongly, while others enjoyed the Spring and suffered later in 2022, and a rare few even had consistency on their side.
Here's how F1's bottom half performed this year.
P11 - Daniel Ricciardo (37pts)
A season even worse than the already disappointing 2021 for the honey badger. One year might be a blip, but two is no accident. Ricciardo's stock has nosedived worse than crypto over the last 24 months, and losing his 2023 contract to a rookie Australian will hurt Ricciardo. F1 moves fast, both on and off the track, and you can't blame McLaren for calling time on Daniel's partnership.
F1 2022 Rating - 4/10
P12 - Sebastian Vettel (37pts)
There was once a time when I dreaded seeing Vettel's pointing finger, but I miss it now he's gone. Thanks to the Aston Martin machinery underneath him, Seb would never retire in a blaze of glory. However, his final season's results suggest he outdrove a mediocre car and scored points just as often as he didn't in 2022. A reminder for us all of the talent the German once was in F1.
F1 2022 Rating - 7/10
P13 - Kevin Magnussen (25pts)
Coming back from retirement and dragging a Haas to P5 on his race return perhaps set unrealistic expectations for KMag's year. The Dane never reached that high-water mark again but soundly bested his teammate to justify his place back in F1. A solid, if not unremarkable, year for Magnussen, who will have Nico Hülkenberg pushing him much harder in 2023.
F1 2022 Rating - 6/10
P14 - Pierre Gasly (23pts)
Neither AlphaTauri car fired on all cylinders this year, and car No10 also had an unmotivated Frenchman at its helm. Gasly's Red Bull prison sentence ended at the right moment, and I'm excited to see how he does with Alpine next year. 2022, however, was a write-off for Pierre, who will be glad to see the back of an anonymous year of racing.
F1 2022 Rating - 6/10
P15 - Lance Stroll (18pts)
While Lawrence Stroll's plans for Aston Martin are still taking shape, it's tricky to place Lance's results. The car is no world-beater, but he finished the season with fewer than half the points of his teammate Vettel, which is, frankly, an embarrassment. Unlike many drivers, Stroll never has to worry about staying in the sport, so an underwhelming season like 2022 won't hurt him, but for his own sake, he needs to aim higher in the future.
F1 2022 Rating - 5/10
P16 - Mick Schumacher (12pts)
Two points-scoring finishes in a short-lived F1 career will see Mick exit the sport as a footnote. Forget the obvious comparison; young Schumacher didn't even match up to Magnussen in the sister car. Perhaps Haas's double-rookie 2021 campaign hurt Schumacher's racing progress, but his repeat mistakes suggest the step up might've come too soon or the pressure was too great. Either way, Team Principal Guenther Steiner dropping him seemed a reasonable choice, and when no other teams sniffed around the out-of-contract German, I can't ever see Mick returning.
F1 2022 Rating - 4/10
P17 - Yuki Tsunoda (12pts)
As Gasly proved, this 2022 AlphaTauri was not a surprise hit like the 2021 challenger was. Even so, a dozen points is a meagre return by Tsunoda. Only the mediocrity or inexperience among the many Red Bull juniors who seek an F1 seat has saved Yuki from the axe. It seems he's become slightly more consistent, but at the cost of 2021's occasional stellar weekends, yet he needed those weekends the most to impress his bosses. So a do-or-die third F1 year awaits in 2023.
F1 2022 Rating - 5/10
P18 - Guanyu Zhou (6pts)
China's first F1 driver had people label him a pay driver before he had the opportunity to race in defence. But, while Zhou silenced the doubters, he didn't amass many superfans either. A fortunate P10 in the season-opening Bahrain GP might've springboarded his confidence, but he often was far adrift of the experienced Valtteri Bottas in the sister Alfa Romeo. A just-about-justified contract extension means he's back for 2023, but he'll need more progress to make it to 2024.
F1 2022 Rating - 5/10
P19 - Alex Albon (4pts)
The points tally may not show it, but Albon was one of the F1 2022 stars. It's impossible to judge how poor the Williams was or wasn't this year, but Alex taking three top-10 finishes and regularly escaping Q1 showed his calibre. He's enamoured the Williams team around him, somewhat as George Russell did, and the underdog mentality seems to suit the Thai driver who once had the weight of Red Bull on his shoulders. If he can sit in a midfield-challenging car next year, the points will tumble his way.
F1 2022 Rating - 8/10
P20 - Nicholas Latifi (2pts)
Without Nikita Mazepin to deflect the backmarker tag onto, Latifi inherited the unwanted role of being the butt of F1 jokes in 2022. Sadly for him, he rarely performed at a level to suggest people were wrong to poke fun. His only points came thanks to Williams rolling the strategic dice in Japan rather than through his efforts behind the wheel. Seeing Nyck de Vries jump in for one weekend and out-qualify him, then score points on his F1 debut served to pour salt in Latifi's pride.
F1 2022 Rating - 3/10