F1 2022 - Best team stats part 2

The 2022 F1 season certainly delivered some interesting statistics, allowing GPFans to gather some of the very best for your yuletide reading.

Max Verstappen was utterly dominant this past term, scoring a record-breaking 15 race victories on his way to a second consecutive drivers' title, whilst Red Bull ended a nine-year wait to win the constructors' championship.

Following on from running through the best stats from those teams that finished 10th to sixth in the constructors' standings, we now bring you those from the top five.

McLaren struggle in new era

McLaren’s rise to being regular points and occasional podium contender has been noteworthy in recent years.

But the team took a step back this year in finishing fifth, one place and a remarkable 116 points worse off than in 2021.

Ricciardo struggles cost McLaren

One major reason for the dip was the performance of Daniel Ricciardo as the genial Australian only managed to score in just seven of the 22 races.

Unsurprisingly, this yielded his lowest points tally [37] and championship ranking [11th] since his Toro Rosso days.

Norris a podium oddity

Lando Norris enjoyed a far stronger campaign than his team-mate and finished in the points on 17 occasions. His third-place result in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola made him the only driver not racing for a top-three team to register a podium.

McLaren become pit-stop masters

McLaren had one other reason to celebrate after they set the fastest pit stop of the year.

A 1.98secs tyre change at the Mexico City Grand Prix was the only sub-two-second stop since the introduction of a new directive aimed at slowing them down on safety grounds was introduced at the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix.

Alpine best of the rest

Alpine triumphed in the unofficial best-of-the-rest battle, finishing fourth in the championship for the first time since 2018, with Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso eighth and ninth respectively in the drivers’ standings.

The drivers were the only complete pairing beyond the top three teams to each top a practice session this term, with Ocon quickest during FP2 at São Paulo, with Alonso likewise in FP3 at Montréal.

Alonso follows Schumacher footsteps

Alonso’s final year with the Enstone-based team was eventful, to say the least.

The 41-year-old took his first front-row start in over a decade at the Canadian Grand Prix, became the oldest race leader since Michael Schumacher [in 2011] at Suzuka, and almost clinched pole in Australia.

The major lowlight, of course, was the shocking unreliability on his side of the garage. Alonso suffered six DNFs in 2022, four of which came in the closing seven rounds of the season.

Ocon on the up

Ocon claimed that 2022 was his strongest season, and the statistics back this claim.

The French driver finished a joint-best eighth in the championship with 92 points, the most he has amassed in one season.

Mercedes hidden success in dire year

Mercedes ended 2022 third in the constructors' standings with 515 points, the team's lowest position since 2012.

It was the first time it had failed to win at least one championship crown in the turbo-hybrid era.

Despite this, the Silver Arrows ended the year as the only team to have scored points in each of the 22 races.

Mercedes close on Ferrari record

George Russell's stunning pole lap in Hungary and his maiden race win in Brazil ensured Mercedes topped the order at least once on both a Saturday and Sunday.

This was the 11th consecutive season the team had achieved this, with only McLaren [13] and Ferrari [20] enjoying longer runs.

Mercedes’ most successful weekend was at the São Paulo Grand Prix, where the team converted a front-row lockout into its first one-two result since 2020.

The Silver Arrows also racked up 58 points that weekend, the joint second-best in F1 history, alongside Red Bull's total from Imola this year.

Hamilton endures F1 low

Hamilton had won at least one race and scored at least one pole position in each of his first 15 years competing in F1. But this streak came to a shuddering halt this year.

The seven-time champion was also defeated in the final standings by Russell, losing to a team-mate for only the third time in his F1 career.

Hamilton tops British charts

Hamilton became the most capped British driver in F1 history at the United States Grand Prix. At the time of writing, he has 310 starts to his name.

Ferrari revival begins

Ferrari held a 39-point lead over Mercedes after the first three races but ended the campaign 205 points behind Red Bull.

Despite not achieving championship success, four wins and 20 podiums made the campaign Ferrari's strongest since 2018.

Ferrari kings of qualifying

Ferrari may not always have had the pace to compete with Red Bull on Sundays, but qualifying was a different matter with the team registering 12 pole positions - a joint-best return for the Scuderia, alongside the 2004 season.

Factoring in Kevin Magnussen's shock pole in Brazil, it was the first time that Ferrari-powered cars have taken pole on 13 occasions in a single year.

Leclerc was the most common pole-sitter, starting from the front on nine occasions, two more than his previous best from 2019.

But the Monégasque failed to capitalise on Sundays, converting his position into a race victory just twice.

Leclerc ends Ferrari drought

Leclerc's success at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix brought to an end the second-longest win drought in the Scuderia's F1 history.

The previous win came two years and five months [910 days] earlier at the Singapore Grand Prix.

But this was a comfortably shorter break than the record wait for success, with Ferrari enduring 1,400 days between spraying champagne from the 1990 Spanish Grand Prix to the 1994 German Grand Prix.

Sainz replicates Maldonado success

Carlos Sainz became the first driver to convert his maiden F1 pole into a first grand prix victory when scoring his breakthrough success at Silverstone.

The 28-year-old was the first driver since Pastor Maldonado at the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix to achieve this.

Conversely for the Spaniard, after completing more laps than any other driver in 2021 [1294 - 99.77 percent] by seeing the chequered flag at every race, Sainz was at the other end of the scale this term.

Propping up the table, Sainz completed 1033 laps [79.83 percent].

Red Bull in familiar territory

Red Bull returned to a familiar level of dominance it last enjoyed in the early 2010s. The team won 17 of the 22 races, a tally that fell just short of Mercedes' incredible 2016 performance of 19 wins from 21 races.

Verstappen and Sergio Pérez together scored 28 podiums, a new personal best for the Milton Keynes-based team. Its previous record was 27 in 2011.

Although unable to match his team-mate, Perez's haul of 11 was greater than that of his previous six years combined.

Red Bull topple Williams record

Red Bull enjoyed a remarkable spell this year that saw one of its drivers finish in the top two positions at 19 consecutive races from Saudi Arabia to Mexico.

This surpassed the previous record run of 16 that was shared by Williams [1993-94] and Mercedes [2014-15].

The team scored 759 points over 22 races [109 more than its previous best set in 2011] and came within touching distance of the overall record of 765, a milestone achieved by Mercedes in 2016.

Verstappen finds new A-game

This year has been Verstappen’s most dominant by far, with the Dutchman accumulating a record-breaking 15 victories.

While also scoring seven pole positions, he also set a record for winning from seven different grid slots.

Despite his performances, he actually featured on the podium one time fewer than in 2021.

Verstappen success dwarfs Ferrari decade of pain

Finally, and arguably the most stunning statistic is that Verstappen has won 25 races across the past two seasons. In comparison, Ferrari has topped the podium just 23 times in the last decade.

Additional reporting by Sam Hall

Sundaram Ramaswami -Twitter/Instagram - @f1statsguru

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