When it comes to popularity in the wider racing community, Haas might have had the most popular and the least popular drivers last season.
However, team boss Franz Tost has said that he cannot see any alternatives to Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda, his current line-up – although it took him until the same day as Russell was confirmed at Mercedes to make that official.Īlex Albon talks about his ‘tricky’ year off, Russell's helpful hints and his hopes at Williams 19 March, 2022 Haas: Mick Schumacher, Kevin Magnussen It has been the proving ground for some of the modern greats in F1, including most prominently Verstappen, and plenty of other names have been bandied around for inclusion in 2022. There is always plenty of excitement surrounding who “the sister team” might drop into their seats because they are never afraid to take a chance on youth.
While Ocon did pick up a surprise and invaluable victory in Hungary, they have been well off the pace of the grid’s four front-running teams, but will hope the stability of the same driver line-up in 2022 can help them make further progress forward. The rebranded Renault team will hope the major play they made to sign two-time world champion Alonso to partner Frenchman Ocon, the ideal line-up for a team partially owned by the French government, pays greater dividends than it has so far. Ricciardo signed a “multi-year” deal when he joined McLaren from Renault while Norris signed a new deal keeping him at McLaren until at least 2023 earlier this year. However, the Brit has spent more time at McLaren and is miles ahead of his team-mate in the World Drivers’ Championship and if pressed, McLaren would have to admit he is their No 1 driver. When it comes to experience in F1, Ricciardo is by far the more senior driver at McLaren, having raced more than 200 times compared to Norris’s 51. How Verstappen's battle with Hamilton gave Ferrari a three-month head start on 2022 season 24 March, 2022 Ferrari have shown they are back but Red Bull 'have a great car' and will push them all the way 20 March, 2022 McLaren: Lando Norris, Daniel Ricciardo His performances in 2021, while short of what he might have hoped, were enough to earn him a new contract for next year. In this case though, he offered stability and a large sponsorship package that was good enough to earn him a one-year deal. Step forward Perez, the man whose performances at Racing Point and years of experience made him an unusual choice for Red Bull, who prefer usually to promote from within. The uneasy truce between two drivers who share a garage, data and virtually identical cars but would happily cut the other to shreds on the track is never straightforward, and you don’t have to tell Red Bull: Daniel Ricciardo left because he felt the team were favouring the Dutchman (they were), Pierre Gasly’s confidence was shattered by the pressure of racing him and Alex Albon couldn’t cope with the unstable rear end that Verstappen relishes. The role of Verstappen’s team-mate has never been a particularly easy one in F1, all the way back to Carlos Sainz at Toro Rosso when he first broke into the sport. A stellar driver performance this weekend.De Vries, Drugovich and Herta to test if F1 driver market 'meritocracy' is fact or fiction 12 September, 2022 What we learned from F1 Italian GP, from safety car rule change to De Vries' race seat chance 12 September, 2022 Verstappen strolls to dull Italian GP victory, leaving fans cold as thrill evaporates further 11 September, 2022 Red Bull: Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez Instead of complaining on the radio, he dealt with it in the best possible way.Īlonso did everything right, it wasn’t the result he wanted, but he gave himself all the possible chances. He intentionally let Sainz past twice, in order to gain DRS and keep pace with the Ferrari to be able to defend from Hamilton behind. That cost Alonso 9 seconds.Īlonso was also dealing with a technical issue costing him top speed on the straights. That did occur, but it was unfortunately ill-timed as Alonso was just past the pit entry when it happened and not in time around the circuit for the next lap to still benefit from VSC.
Then the second part of the gamble had to happen: another VSC. But Ocon didn’t do his part defending hard the way Alonso did for him before Hamilton had no trouble getting past at all! They correctly rolled the dice staying out on the first VSC as that was their chance to get a podium: have Ocon hold up Hamilton after Hamilton took the VSC stop, while gambling on another later (V)SC stop with Alonso for a near perfect 1-stop race.
Outstanding quali and in the race he gave it everything and Alpine even played a very nice strategy that through bad luck didn’t work out.
Verstappen just did what was to be expected from him with Leclerc and Perez starting further back.