Last Formula 1 season was a great disappointment. This year not only was there no sign of a fight for the title, but even in the individual Grands Prix the fight for first place was extremely rare: Red Bull won 21 races out of a possible 22. However, even such a disappointing season left us with some positive moments.
Fernando Alonso returns to the podium
The Spaniard’s transfer to Aston Martin initially raised many questions: on paper, the transfer seemed more than risky. However, as practice has shown, in the summer of 2022 Alonso made the right decision. For the first time since he played for Ferrari, Fernando returned to the fight for top positions. Of course, with such a monstrous Red Bull, fighting for victories was out of the question, but the 42-year-old “Super Grandpa” Alonso often fought for a place in the top three.
In the first six races, Alonso achieved five podiums, 2.5 times more than in the previous nine years! And at the Monaco Grand Prix, Fernando had a real chance of winning, but a late switch to wet tires ruined the Spaniard’s chances.
Fernando Alonso and Max Verstappen
Photo: Mark Thompson/Getty Images
Going forward, Aston Martin will lose some momentum, but Fernando will be on the podium three more times. Special mention deserves the battle that took place in Interlagos between Alonso and Pérez for third place, which became the highlight of the entire Grand Prix. With a less fast car, Fernando managed to earn a place in the top three. Perhaps this has been one of the most spectacular podiums in the Spanish driver’s career.
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Encouraging progress for McLaren
It’s always sad for long-time fans to see once-successful and legendary teams go down. Fortunately, McLaren emerged from the basement, where it ended up with Honda, but with the entry into force of the new regulations, progress seemed to stop. The Woking team took only fifth place at the end of the 2022 championship.
Last season also started alarmingly for the “oranges”: the team showed an extremely low pace: in the first two races the Norris-Piastri tandem did not score a single point. In the future, McLaren will fail at several more stages and then the “Queen of Motorsport” will descend on Silverstone. For the home Grand Prix, the Woking team prepared large-scale updates that, lo and behold, worked immediately: Norris finished second, Piastri fourth.
In the next stage, in Hungary, Lando repeated his success. Starting with the Singapore Grand Prix, McLaren finally established itself as the second force in the peloton. The progress of the “oranges” gives some hope that in the foreseeable future McLaren can finally regain its status as a top team. For Formula 1, the return of McLaren brings complete advantages, because the more competitive the teams in the peloton are, the better for the championship.
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Brilliant debut by Oscar Piastri
It cannot be said that Piastri’s successful debut became a sensation (after all, the main talent of the generation), but the fact that the Oscar fully justified the advances made to him cannot but rejoice. In the last two seasons, the championship debutants have often disappointed: Mick Schumacher, Nikita Mazepin, Logan Sargent and Nyck de Vries are proof of this. Well, at least Piastri didn’t lose face, proving that newcomers (who have been reluctantly accepted into F1 in recent years) can easily show decent results in their first year of racing in the Royal Races.
Last season, Oscar won the Qatar Grand Prix sprint, took two podiums and simply looked pretty decent compared to Norris. Yes, there were some stupid mistakes on Piastri’s part, but they can be attributed to inexperience. The most important thing is that the Australian has the potential to continue growing. Today we can safely say that in the future Piastri will become one of the strongest riders in the peloton.
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The story of Lawson and the return of Ricciardo
It just so happened that Nick de Vries’ failure in Alpha Tauri gave us two beautiful stories at once. To begin with, the dismissal of the Dutch driver allowed Daniel Ricciardo to return to the peloton. After a failed spell at McLaren, the Australian’s formula career was in limbo – Dan risked being locked out of the ranks of F1 fighter drivers forever.
Why do we consider Ricciardo’s return to the peloton a positive moment of the season? Largely due to the fact that seeing Dan as the pilot of Alpha Tauri turned out to be much more interesting than De Vries. Still, each Ricciardo Grand Prix was perceived as a mini-exam in anticipation of a possible promotion to Red Bull driver in 2025.
Liam Lawson and Daniel Ricciardo
Photo: Peter Fox/Getty Images
Another interesting story that unfolded at the Bulls junior team camp was Liam Lawson’s F1 debut. During training for the Dutch Grand Prix, Ricciardo suffered an accident that caused a broken arm. The Australian was out for five stages and Lawson took his place in the cockpit of the Alpha Tauri.
The New Zealand driver only needed one race weekend to adapt: from the second stage onwards, Lawson began to show quite decent results. Liam’s best moment came in Singapore: on Saturday, newcomer Alpha Tauri advanced to the last qualifying segment, at the same time eliminating Verstappen himself, and on Sunday he scored his first points in F1, finishing in ninth place.
Unfortunately, even such impressive results did not convince the Bulls management to hire Lawson as an Alpha Tauri fighter pilot for the next season: the New Zealander will be happy with the “reserve” status.
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Singapore Grand Prix
Well, we couldn’t ignore Red Bull’s only loss of the season! The rugged Singapore street circuit was so unsuitable for the Austrian team that for the first time this year the bulls were isolated from the fight for victory. From the beginning, the race weekend did not promise anything positive for Red Bull: Verstappen qualified 11th, Pérez 13th. In terms of race pace, the hegemons also turned out to be unusually weak: Max finished fifth.
In the absence of the Dominators, the fight for victory took place between two teams: Ferrari and Mercedes. From start to finish, spectators witnessed a tense battle for first place. This race had it all: a tactical duel, between two candidates for victory, a dramatic finish with Russell’s accident, as well as a tight finish from the leading group: first and third place were separated by only one second.
Carlos Sainz after winning the Singapore Grand Prix
Photo: Clive Rose/Getty Images
The only driver who managed to interrupt Red Bull’s winning streak was Carlos Sainz. He was helped just in time by his McLaren friend Lando Norris, who in the final laps kept the Mercedes drivers at bay, who, thanks to an additional pit stop, received a set of new tires for the final segment of the race. , and, consequently, an advantage over Sainz and Norris. However, even this was not enough for Russell and Hamilton to prevail over the CarLando duo. This was probably the most colorful race of the season.
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