Like a season without suspense, the now reigning double world champion Max Verstappen ended the year with a crushing victory in Abu Dhabi, where Charles Leclerc offered himself the honorary title of vice-champion of Formula 1.
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The sun set on the Emirates, Dutchman Verstappen won a record 15th Grand Prix in 2022, but Red Bull failed to achieve the first double in its history, Mexican Sergio Pérez finishing three points behind Leclerc.
After the last 58 loops of the year and some 306 kilometers at Yas Marina, F1 went into hibernation and one of its great champions, Sebastian Vettel, four titles on the clock (2010-2013), bowed out after an anecdotal 10th place.
Red Bull will spend the winter warm, despite the tensions of recent weeks between its drivers and its sanction for exceeding the 2021 budget cap.
Worst season for Hamilton
“Incredible to win again here (third consecutive time, editor’s note), the 15th victory of the season,” smiled the 25-year-old Dutchman, victorious for the 35th time in his F1 career. “It was really nice to achieve a year like this, I know it will be difficult to reproduce but it is a good motivation to try to do the same thing next year”.
For the others, the off-season will have to be studious to hope for better, from March 5, 2023 in Bahrain for the first meeting of a record season of 24 races.
“I really hope that next year we can take a step forward to fight for the title, we will work hard during the winter break,” promised Leclerc.
Ferrari saved its second place in the constructors’ standings ahead of Mercedes, this Sunday in the Gulf, but the problems are very real for the Scuderia which thought at the start of the year it could aim for the title. His other driver, Spaniard Carlos Sainz, finished 5th in the world.
Behind, Mercedes, after its first victory of the year in Brazil last week, ended on a bad note. Forced to retire due to mechanical failure, his seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton is experiencing the very first white season of his career since 2007.
It is without pole position or victory, he who holds the record with 103 units of each, that the Briton leaves 2022.
“I can’t wait to stop driving this thing,” admitted the former king of the discipline on Saturday.
Admittedly, this Silver Arrow has nothing to do with its predecessors and the team will have to reinvent itself. But Hamilton, 37, also suffered a personal defeat against his young teammate.
George Russell, 24, achieved the feat of beating his illustrious elder in his first season: with a pole position and a victory, he finished 4th in the world. A disavowal for Sir Lewis, 6th, his worst result in sixteen seasons.
Among the manufacturers, Alpine saves its 4th place ahead of McLaren.
Farewell
Next year F1 will be without a big name. The German Sebastian Vettel leaves the discipline at 35 after four titles, obtained from 2010 to 2013 with Red Bull, to devote himself to his family and his off-track fights (ecology, defense of diversity).
His young compatriot Mick Schumacher loses his seat at Haas, after two unconvincing seasons. If he wants to cling to the hope of a comeback, it was Nicholas Latifi’s single-seater that he clung to on Sunday – causing him a penalty.
Latifi, 27, three seasons, no podium and many errors on the clock, left the elite for lack of results – like his last place on Sunday.
His accident on this circuit in 2021 had caused the entry of the safety car, which had redistributed the cards and offered victory and the world title to Verstappen against Hamilton, against the backdrop of controversial decisions by the race management.
Australian Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren), 9th in Abu Dhabi, does not have a steering wheel either in 2023 but could be Red Bull’s reserve driver.
Finally, the Spaniard Fernando Alonso, 41, had to retire for his last GP with Alpine before joining Aston Martin. He finished the year 9th, behind his French teammate Esteban Ocon, 8th.
Alonso will be replaced in the French team by the other tricolor Pierre Gasly, who completes his long collaboration with AlphaTauri in a distant 14th place in the world.