[BTCC frog]

14. Kevin Magnussen (up 1 from 2020). Another ranking that appears a little harsh, but although Magnussen had a strong comeback and helped Haas to their best finish in four years, with some particularly standout moments, he too often showed little pace and finished behind Schumacher. He also was a bit too aggressive on the first lap of races, earning three black and orange flags. Perhaps the best moment of the entire season was his shock pole position in Brazil, and there can be no doubt that he was a huge improvement on Nikita Mazepin, who he replaced on the eve of the season.

Magnussen’s most impressive drive of the year was the first one, in Bahrain, where he stepped into the car for the first time in the last week of testing, then qualified seventh and finished fifth, a remarkable result. The Haas was a good car at the start of the year, and Magnussen scored further points in Jeddah and Imola. He overtook Hamilton in the former and qualified fourth in the wet in the latter. Following a poor run of form, Magnussen scored a good eighth, after seventh in the sprint (and actually scored in all three sprints), in Austria despite car problems, while he would score just once more, taking ninth in COTA after good tyre management. He was also very quick in qualifying in Montreal and Paul Ricard. But the highlight of the year came in Brazil, where the cars were able to set just one lap in Q3 before it rained heavily, and of those laps, Kevin Magnussen’s was the fastest, so while it was a little fortunate, it was still pole on merit, the first ever for both him and the team.

But from Canada onwards, Magnussen generally struggled to keep the upper hand over Schumacher, and the Haas drivers were very evenly matched. The three black and orange flags in Canada, Hungary and Singapore were unlucky, if not coincidental, but in Monza, Zandvoort, Mexico and Abu Dhabi he was simply slower than Schumacher, as well as in Silverstone where he did at least score a point. Magnussen has never quite lived up to the promise he showed in his first ever race, that brilliant podium in Australia 2014, and it will be interesting to see how he fares against Nico Hulkenberg this year, having raced against very few teammates.

15. Lance Stroll (down 2). Stroll is very heavily maligned in Formula 1 for the fact that his father owns the team, and although he is far from the worst driver on the grid, it is true that drivers of his level very rarely get seven seasons (at least) in the top level. Stroll did alright compared to a past-his-best Vettel this year, but was still generally underwhelming and doesn’t look to be showing signs of improvement. This year, he was also a little too aggressive in wheel-to-wheel combat.

But Stroll did have some very good races this year, with Zandvoort being one where he was very quick in all weekend and took a well-deserved point for tenth. Also notable was his charge to eighth in Abu Dhabi which almost earned Aston Martin sixth in the championship, and a slightly fortunate sixth in Singapore, which still required a good defence against Vettel at the end. He held off his teammate in Paul Ricard for a point, and deserved another in Hungary but lost time as he was hit by Ricciardo. Stroll drove well to tenth in Miami, where he had qualified, despite having to start from the pitlane.

COTA initially looked like Stroll’s best drive of all, as he qualified a brilliant seventh and was running there in the race when he made a late defensive move on Alonso that took him out of the race. Stroll also forced teammate Vettel onto the grass in the Brazil sprint, and turned in on Albon in Jeddah. He also had some disappointing races such as Monaco and Baku, and was usually a bit behind Vettel. Being outqualified by Hulkenberg in Bahrain was also a low point. Stroll is not a bad driver and looks to have the Aston Martin seat as long as he wants it, but I suspect he will have a more difficult time next year alongside Alonso, who will be keen to have the team built more around him.

16. Yuki Tsunoda (up 3). After a very poor debut season, Tsunoda showed significant improvement this year, often outpacing Gasly, and I think there is more to come from Tsunoda. He is still too error-prone, making some clumsy mistakes this year, and sometimes appears angry and unprofessional, but who also is quick and has significant potential in Formula 1. Pierre Gasly’s drop in form since last year, and Tsunoda’s improvement, suggests that last year’s car was perhaps designed far more around his teammate.

Tsunoda’s most impressive drive probably came in Imola, where he was quite a lot faster than his teammate and finished seventh after overtaking Vettel and Magnussen with strong pace later in the race. In Baku he was close behind Gasly and lost sixth to a rear wing failure, while he was taken out in Paul Ricard following a good qualifying. Spain and Zandvoort were other races where he was quicker than his teammate, as were Mexico and Abu Dhabi, but he often finished just outside the points or had bad luck when he was fast.

In general, Tsunoda wasn’t quite as quick as Gasly, but the main thing that hurts his ranking is far too many big errors. The worst of these came in Silverstone, where he committed the cardinal sin of taking out his teammate, spinning into Gasly, while he crashed clumsily in both Canada and Singapore, and had poor races in Austria and Hungary. But despite this mistakes, Tsunoda was much better than he had been in 2021, and I expect more significant improvement next year, so would be surprised if he is beaten by new teammate Nyck de Vries.

17. Zhou Guanyu (rookie). The only rookie on the grid had what looks on paper like a very poor season, heavily outscored by Bottas. But this disguises the fact that Zhou was particularly uncompetitive when the car was at its best, and improved significantly after the Alfa Romeo stopped being a regular contender for points, and over the second half of the season he was frequently quicker than Bottas. From Hungary onwards, I would rate Zhou marginally ahead of his teammate. He also has strong racecraft and is good in wet conditions. His season will be best remembered for a very scary accident in Silverstone in which his car was tipped upside down and then launched over a barrier.

Zhou scored points on his debut, finishing tenth in Bahrain after some good overtaking, but his best race of the year was Canada where he made Q3 in a wet qualifying, and then finished eighth, unlucky to be beaten by Bottas. Zhou also made the top ten in the wet Silverstone qualifying, and scored a point for tenth in Monza. But while the car wasn’t great over the second half of the year and Zhou scored few points, he usually finished ahead of Bottas, with Abu Dhabi being an example of such, where he also pulled off a fantastic last lap move on Albon.

But the main problem with Zhou’s season was that he failed to score good points when the car was good. Maybe he struggled with pressure, or maybe the car was always good and Bottas’ form just fluctuated significantly, while Zhou was just consistently average. I suspect it is a bit of a combination, and while Zhou had a few reliability issues, they didn’t really cost him points, with Silverstone the only retirement that is likely to have denied him points, a crash in which he was the innocent party. Zhou’s rookie season was decent, and he might become a solid midfielder in the future, but I suspect Bottas will turn up more next year and he will be left behind a bit.

18. Mick Schumacher (down 1). I have to question where Schumacher would place on this list if Mazepin was still his teammate. Bahrain is a perfect example, where he finished 11th, and would have looked outstanding if Mazepin had raced the second car and finished towards the back, but instead was compared with Magnussen in fifth, and suddenly he didn’t look much cop. He would almost certainly still have his Haas drive, but I think he has been harshly sacked anyway, having generally matched Magnussen over the second half of the season. But much of that was down to his poor first third of the year, with far too many heavy accidents costing the team a significant amount of money.

Schumacher scored just two points finishes this year, but both were big points as he finished an excellent eighth, from the back, in Silverstone after a late battle with Verstappen. He then defended well against Hamilton in Austria in the sprint, and made progress to take sixth in the race. Then he also drove well to make Q3 in Zandvoort, and in Monza he outperformed Magnussen and pulled off a super move on Latifi. Canada was another strong weekend, where Schumacher started sixth but retired. And while Brazil qualifying was perhaps the nail in the coffin, qualifying last with his teammate on pole, Schumacher recovered very well in the sprint to finish just four places behind Magnussen.

The reason Schumacher is out of Formula 1 is the large amount of crashes he had at the start of the year, with heavy crashes in Jeddah and Monaco, where the car split in two, particularly costly, but Schumacher also hit Vettel in Miami and lost his first points. But he was thereafter very clean, up until Abu Dhabi where he hit Latifi with a silly move, but had already lost his drive by that time. One of the most likeable drivers on the grid, I would like to see Schumacher given another chance in the future, with rumours of a move to Sauber, but would say that is unlikely.

19. Daniel Ricciardo (down 4). Maybe I am being too harsh on him due to the expectations, and it is true that Norris is a supremely talented driver. But the car was all new for this year, and Ricciardo had been at the team for a full season already, so the fact that he performed so poorly is concerning, and somewhat inexcusable. He was never close to Norris’ pace, and also made numerous errors. But Ricciardo is not a bad driver, we have seen at Red Bull and Renault just how talented he is, and he just wasn’t himself in 2022, or 2021 for that matter.

The one real glimpse of the Ricciardo of old in 2022 came in Mexico, where he was given the soft tyre for the final stint and charged through the pack to seventh, top of the midfield. Ricciardo also qualified and raced well in Australia, just behind Norris as he finished sixth, and beat his teammate in Baku. His best result was fifth in Singapore, but this was a more fortunate result. Ricciardo ended the season with a decent drive to ninth in Abu Dhabi, but these races were too few and far between to save his drive.

Ricciardo’s main problem this year was the complete lack of pace, outqualifying Norris just once, in Spain after his teammate exceeded track limits, and Monaco, Silverstone, Zandvoort and COTA would have to be the most disappointing examples of him having absolutely no pace. The frustration caused by this probably caused some of the errors, taking out Sainz in Imola, Magnussen in Brazil, Tsunoda in Mexico, and for many the feeling at the end of the year was that his exit from Formula 1 couldn’t come soon enough. Ricciardo rightly lost his drive to Oscar Piastri for next year, but hopefully he will squeeze his way back in somewhere in the future, because we saw as recently as 2020 that he is still a very good driver.

20. Nicholas Latifi (down 2). He may have been well-beaten by George Russell, but Latifi, while among the backmarkers, did okay in his first two seasons in Formula 1. For some reason, that changed in 2022 and he plummeted to the clear worst on the grid, unable to stay anywhere near the pace of Alex Albon, and while he made a few mistakes, Latifi’s main problem was that he was just so slow. Maybe the aftermath of Abu Dhabi 2021 has had an effect on his driving, but it was unsurprising when he was dropped by the team at the end of the season.

Amongst all the pain, Latifi did have two very good races. The first of these came in Silverstone, where he came through every qualifying session to make it into Q3 and start tenth, and then raced well to stick with the pace of the midfield and run in the top ten for a considerable amount of the race, eventually slipping to 12th. The next good race was Suzuka, where Latifi pitted for intermediates immediately when the race restarted and got into the points as a result, before driving well enough to finish ninth.

Latifi had a few races where he made errors, such as Saudi Arabia where he crashed twice and Singapore where he put Zhou in the wall, but his main problem was being cut adrift in last place time after time with no apparent explanation as to why. It wasn’t his worst race, but one that stands out particularly was Monza, where Nyck de Vries was drafted in from practice three to replace Latifi, outqualified him, and then scored points for ninth as Latifi was 15th. That was the final nail in the coffin, and despite his wealth, I don’t expect to see Latifi back in Formula 1 again. But he is not as bad a driver as this season would suggest.

Awards:

Driver of the season – Max Verstappen. Broke records with 15 wins in a season, and utterly dominated. Added his name to the list of the great drivers of history. Honourable mentions to Leclerc and Norris.

Team of the season – Red Bull. Built the best car, outfoxed their rivals strategically, continued to do the fastest pitstops, very little reliability trouble, had the best driver and dominated the championship. No honourable mentions, it cannot be anyone else.

Most improved driver – Alexander Albon. It was expected, but he was so much better than he had been at Red Bull, and repaired his reputation. Honourable mentions to Russell and Tsunoda.

Biggest disappointment (driver) – Daniel Ricciardo. I thought he would get back on form this year in the new cars but he was worse, and there were no complaints when he was dropped. Honourable mentions to Gasly and Bottas.

Biggest disappointment (team) – Mercedes. Their drop in form gave Red Bull a rather simple run to the championship, but their radical design may pay off in the long term. Honourable mention to Alpine and McLaren, still not frontrunners.

Best designers – Red Bull. Simply, they built the best car. Honourable mention to Mercedes because I think their design will pay off eventually.

Best strategists – Red Bull. On so many occasions they beat Mercedes or Ferrari strategically, in Monaco, Hungary, USA and Mexico. Honourable mention to Aston Martin.

Best mechanics – Red Bull. Again. Their pitstops are still consistently the best. Honourable mention to McLaren, who did actually have the fastest stop of the year. I can’t really think of any particularly impressive quick repair jobs this year from anyone.

Best race drive – Max Verstappen, Belgium. All weekend, he was a class above anyone else, and went from the back to the front in less than half the race. Honourable mentions to Verstappen, Japan and Leclerc, Austria, and De Vries, Monza.

Best qualifying lap – Kevin Magnussen, Brazil. It had to be, he took pole position in a Haas. Honourable mention to Leclerc, Spain.

Best race lap – Sebastian Vettel, final lap in Austin. Overtaking Kevin Magnussen to gain eighth place on the penultimate corner was outstanding. Honourable mention to the battle between Leclerc and Verstappen in Bahrain, and the laps on slick tyres on a damp track in Singapore.

Best overtake – Charles Leclerc on Hamilton, Silverstone. Around the outside, on worn hard tyres, at Copse. It was beautiful. Honourable mentions to Leclerc on Perez, Austin and Vettel on Albon, Austin.

Biggest blunder (driver) – Charles Leclerc, France. This crash from the lead of the race effectively ended the championship. Honourable mentions to Schumacher, Miami and Tsunoda, Britain.

Biggest blunder (team) – Ferrari, Silverstone. Why did they leave Leclerc on those old tyres after the safety car? Honourable mentions to Ferrari, Monaco and Ferrari, Hungary.

Best race – The United States GP. A great battle between Hamilton and Verstappen at the front, entirely fair, Leclerc’s amazing pass on Perez, Vettel’s charge to points and Alonso seventh despite the crash. Honourable mentions to the British GP and the Hungarian GP.

Worst race – The Azerbaijan GP. After Leclerc retired, there was no battle at the front and it was very dull. Honourable mention to Mexico.

Best moment – Discovering that the new cars could follow closely. They’re not perfect, but we are going in the right direction. Next step is getting rid of DRS. Honourable mention to Magnussen’s pole and Ferrari’s resurgence.

Worst moment – Finding out Red Bull had exceeded the budget cap in 2021. It’s cheating, and massively devalued their title win last year. Honourable mention to the missile strike debacle in Saudi Arabia, the wait to find out Zhou’s condition in Silverstone (both were worse, but I wanted to give it to an actual F1 moment), and also the appalling behaviour of much of the F1 fanbase, both online and at the tracks.

The 2022 season was very average, particularly considering it came after one of F1’s greatest ever seasons in 2021, but I think the title battle could be a lot more exciting in 2023, and another edition of Hamilton vs Verstappen, with Leclerc and Russell hopefully not far behind either.




I would be interested to know how other people would rank the drivers, and then I will do an overall ranking adding up the scores of any top tens using the real scoring system.