Motorsport Week’s top 10 drivers of the 2022 F1 season

The 2022 Formula 1 season came to a conclusion last month, with Max Verstappen rounding out the year with another victory in Abu Dhabi. The Dutchman enjoyed a strong campaign en route to his second title, but some of his rivals also enjoyed a positive year. Motorsport Week’s F1 journalists Phillip Horton and Fergal Walsh list their top 10 drivers of the season.

10. Valtteri Bottas

Several drivers had strong 2022 seasons; Sebastian Vettel was excellent as he sauntered off into a much-deserved retirement, Alexander Albon spearheaded the charge for a poor Williams outfit, Pierre Gasly was hamstrung by AlphaTauri’s mediocrity, while Kevin Magnussen gave Haas the lift – and points and a shock pole – that it needed after recent misery. But for the season-long performance the final spot inside the top 10 goes to Valtteri Bottas. Recency bias clouds Bottas’ maiden Alfa Romeo campaign but across the first two-thirds of the season he was fantastic, and almost single-handedly secured the team its best finish in nine years. Those results often came in spite of limited practice owing to Alfa Romeo’s poor reliability, the impact of which had a far greater effect once rival midfield teams closed in and then overtook Alfa Romeo. Bottas consequently scored only three points across the final 13 rounds, but his strong start will aid Alfa Romeo’s budget moving forward, while 2026 Audi tie-in gives the team a long-term platform.

9. Esteban Ocon

 In the latter stages of the season, Ocon (and Alpine’s) season was narrated by the overhanging sense of intra-team imbalance, amid tension between himself and team-mate Alonso. Through that, it was easy to forget his performances during the year kept Alpine elevated four fourth place in the Constructors’ standings. Reliability was an issue at times, but he wasn’t impacted as much as Alonso was (the Spaniard highlighting that fact on several occasions). Despite the absence of a podium result, 2022 marked Ocon’s most successful season yet in terms of points and finishing position, which is notable given that all of the challengers that the Frenchman has raced since the start of his F1 career have been solid midfield entries.

8. Carlos Sainz

This may seem a harsh placement on Sainz, and there were moments of misfortune that hindered his campaign, but when a rapid car came his way early on he failed to grasp the opportunities. That cast the die, and while the F1-75 evolved and he got a handle on the car’s characteristics, he was already behind his primary opponents in the reckoning. His maiden win in Britain was long overdue, and deserved for a driver of his talent, though ironically it came in a race in which he was fairly subdued. There was misfortune – engine failures in Azerbaijan and Austria, a slow stop in the Netherlands, being turned around from pole in Austin – but also a handful of his own errors that undermined his prospects. Strong Leclerc-beating performances early doors in 2023 are a must if he has long-term title aspirations.

7. Sergio Perez

Perez had a number of impressive displays throughout the year – most notably his wins in Monaco and Singapore. However, as was the case in 2021, offering a challenge to Max Verstappen across the season was a seemingly impossible challenge. He will forever be part of the dominant Red Bull squad that ruled the 2022 campaign and played his own role in lifting the team to the top of the standings – but ultimately, 2022 will be remembered for Verstappen’s supremacy, and Perez will always live in the shadow of that. He has two more seasons under contract at Red Bull and faces a sizeable mountain if he wishes to make the next step. In 2022 there were flashes that he can do so, but a lack of consistency is his biggest downfall.

6. Fernando Alonso

Alonso’s post-race media sessions after failures always contained his estimates of the points lost, starting at one number before being raised slightly, as he reassessed the damage to his season results. Ultimately, he said he didn’t care about his championship position, because the performance remained strong, and his overall suggestion that he missed out on 60-70 points in 2022 seems high yet is eminently realistic. Alonso is now 41, and Formula 1’s most experienced driver in history, but there were more than a few moments of magic in 2022. His Australia Q3 display was superb until a hydraulic issue put him in the wall and led to a hand injury; his performance in Canada’s rain was even better as he secured a front-row grid spot. Alpine’s hesitancy to hand him a firm multi-year extension prompted the proud Alonso to seek gainful employment elsewhere and Aston Martin will find out soon all about the Spaniard’s insatiable competitive streak – for better or worse. 

5. Lewis Hamilton

By all accounts, Hamilton didn’t have a bad F1 season – just a rather invisible one, especially for his standards. Having been fighting at the front of the F1 field for most of his career, Mercedes’ poor form this year saw him take a step back in the pecking order. After it sorted out its early season woes, Hamilton stood on the podium a number of times, but a race victory never came his way for the first season in his F1 venture. The opportunities arose in Silverstone and Sao Paulo but he was forced to settle for seconds and thirds. Although he experimented more with set-ups in an attempt to understand Mercedes’ troublesome car, team-mate George Russell offered him a good challenge during the year, arguably his toughest intra-team contest since 2016 when he last partnered Nico Rosberg. There was nothing contained in the campaign to suggest he’s lost mojo – but as he’s asserted, the team struggles has only boosted his determination to remain in F1.

4. George Russell

Russell has been accustomed to character-building years in Formula 1, after his time with Williams, and the step up to champions Mercedes proved to be another one. Russell’s much-deserved promotion to the top table came just as the previously pace-setting outfit made its first major technical stumble in a decade. Yet Russell kept his head down early on, bagging consistent points, as he slotted into the team with ease. As the car improved so too did his prospects and he snuck a shock maiden pole in Hungary, before second in the Netherlands. A dip in form – including an uncharacteristically messy weekend in Singapore – prompted a re-think, as Lewis Hamilton frequently emerged as Mercedes’ faster driver. That led to Russell’s starring weekend in Sao Paulo, sweeping to Sprint victory before masterfully managing the following day’s grand prix to capture his first Formula 1 win. It was the fillip he and Mercedes needed at the end of a gruelling season to signal that brighter times should be on the agenda in 2023.

3. Lando Norris

Norris had a quietly consistent season, and was the only driver outside of the top three teams to secure a podium. That embezzled result seemed to be a world away in Bahrain, when it appeared that McLaren had got the new regulations wrong. However, it steadily improved its form and Norris was there to score the points and take the team’s fight against Alpine for fourth in the Constructors’ Championship all the way to the end of the season. For the second year in a row, he had the measure over Daniel Ricciardo, who has now departed the team to re-join Red Bull in a third driver role. Norris’ campaign further displayed further growth as he rounded out his fourth season in the sport, but will be hoping to be provided a car that allows him to fight further up the grid soon.

2. Charles Leclerc

For the second time in four years Charles Leclerc was Formula 1’s fastest driver over a single lap, but that he concluded a promising yet faltering 2022 campaign with only five career wins to his name feels remarkably underwhelming. Leclerc had his best season to date by classifying second in the championship, with three wins, but it could and should have been more. Engine failures robbed Leclerc of a probable win in Spain, a possible win in Azerbaijan, while the knock-on effect hampered him too in Canada. Ferrari’s baffling or unclear strategy calls cost him in Hungary, Britain and, most agonisingly, in Monaco, where for a second successive season pole position around his home streets was squandered. Some inexperience showed, in not being more assertive in certain situations, while mistakes in Emilia Romagna and France also cost Leclerc stronger results. Nevertheless, even had he executed a perfect season from the cockpit it would not have been enough to overturn a whopping 146-point gap to the champion.

1. Max Verstappen

Verstappen’s 2022 F1 season can be summed up in one word – domination. His route to his second successive title couldn’t have been any different from his first as following his close 2021 tussle with Lewis Hamilton, this time around he controlled proceedings. Although his title hopes looked bleak after early season reliability gremlins, Verstappen’s form swung around as the season went on. It now stands as one of the most dominant seasons in F1 history, and he now holds the record for the most race wins in a season. His form on the build up to and after the summer break was memorising. He was untouchable and displayed his prowess with impressive outings at Spa-Francorchamps and Suzuka, to name a few. For the second year in a row, Verstappen tops Motorsport Monday’s top 10 list.