After just seven races the 2022 Formula One season has delivered a plethora of memorable motorsport moments and here are our picks of some of the best ones.
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DOUBLE DNF
The new machines made their racing debuts at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix and the story of the race was billed as a battle between Ferrari and Red Bull.
The Prancing Horses and the Bulls did not disappoint, locking out the first two rows of the grid and dominating the top four position on track during the race… until lap 54 that is.
Charles Leclerc had kept Max Verstappen in his rear-view mirror for most of the race bar a few overtakes, from which the Ferrari reclaimed the lead, but a late safety car handed the Red Bull a last chance to claim victory.
Once the safety car pulled in, disaster stuck for Max and his chance of winning the race went up in smoke, as he was forced to retire to the pits after reporting a loss of power.
Things went from bad to worse for Christian Horner’s team as a second podium place disappeared suddenly with Sergio Perez spinning his car on the final lap due to an abrupt loss of power, which handed a one-two finish for Ferrari for the first time in a long time.
The speed v reliability debate was ignited by Red Bull’s double failure in Bahrain but, as we would come to know, even though Red Bull did suffer further reliability issues their speed has allowed them to summit both the driver and constructor championships.
POINS IN THE BAG FOR K-MAG
Zero, nothing, nil, naught, zip, and zilch are just a few of the words used to describe the number of points Haas racked up in 2021 and, despite a positive showing in testing, questions about their ability to score in 2022 remained.
Those questions were answered in record time by a man who was not meant to be on the grid in this season.
After Nikita Mazepin’s contract was cancelled by the American-owned team, Gunter Steiner turned to an old friend to fill the gap left by the polarising Russian.
Enter one Kevin Magnussen, making his return to the sport after a one-year sabbatical, who put his Haas in seventh place on the grid and went on to claim a fifth-place finish in the race, picking up the team’s first points since October 2020. The 10 points earned for the Dane’s finish are more than the team has earned since the 2019 season when they finished with 28 points.
DRS CHESS
Traditionally motor racing has been about beating your opponents to the line but, when it comes to the DRS line in F1, the dynamic has changed a bit.
Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc put that concept on show in Jeddah when the battle for the race lead turned into a chess match around the DRS detection point.
With both drivers aware of the advantage of having DRS down the straights, the pair were gracious with the attempts to let each other gain the lead ahead of the detection zones, even putting on a smoke show for onlookers.
The battle of wits was great to watch but raised much concern about the spirit of racing and the efficacy of DRS doing what it was intended to do.
FROM ‘SAVE THE ENGINE’ TO P5
Mercedes arrived at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya with an upgrade package that showed promising results in practice and qualifying, which saw them claim fourth and sixth on the grid.
When the lights went out come race time though, it didn’t take long for things to turn sour, as a failed overtake by Kevin Magnussen sent him into the gravel trap and sent Lewis Hamilton tumbling down the order with a front-left puncture.
Emerging from the pits in last place, Hamilton seemed to have thrown in the towel, at least mentally at that point, radioing his team to tell them that they should ‘save the engine’, which is code for retire from the race.
The smart men on the pit wall did some sums though and determined that if Lewis gave it everything, he could be in with a chance of a good points finish.
So, the seven-time world champion put his head down and got to work, producing one of his finest drives to climb all the way from 19th to fifth place, proving perhaps as much to himself as the rest of the world that if he knuckles down he can get the best out of the Mercedes car, which he has battled with throughout the season.
HOMETOWN HOODOO STRIKES LECLERC AGAIN
Returning home is usually a comforting experience for most, even in the racing context, but for one Monegasque coming to the Monaco GP has been nothing short of horrifying.
The hoodoo that surrounded Charles Leclerc at his home race looked to be firmly behind him, having secured pole position in dominant style and then cruising to a commanding position during the race, only for the return of the infamous Ferrari strategic stuff-up to derail his dreams once again.
Not only did the Ferrari strategists allow Sergio Perez to undercut and take track position ahead of Leclerc during the first round of pitstops, but they then also compounded the issue by double stacking Leclerc behind Sainz in an attempt to overcut the Red Bulls during the second round of pitstops, which was ultimately the wrong decision and saw the Monegasque fall to fourth place behind Max Verstappen.
In the past Leclerc was to blame for his poor showing in Monaco but this year he was near perfect, so this disappointment will hurt much more than the rest.
SUPER SERGIOS P1 PLUNGE
Sergio Perez was left smarting after being asked to concede a race-winning position to his Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen but responded in the perfect fashion next time out, with the help of his team this time.
The explanation after Barcelona was that Max was on a different strategy to Sergio and that giving Verstappen the lead was better for both the drivers and the team but in Monaco it seems like the strategy to get the Mexican a race win was prioritised.
Red Bull brought Perez in to undercut Leclerc and then stayed out to overcut Sainz, which saw Perez break the monopoly on race victories that Verstappen and Leclerc had on the 2022 season.
Thanks to Daniel Ricciardo’s antics in 2018, the reward for winning a race in Monaco is a dip in the swimming pool, and Perez and Christian Horner were all too happy to honour the tradition.