The five most disappointing drivers of F1 2022
Mick Schumacher
Mick Schumacher found himself under huge pressure early in his sophomore season after two huge crashes in Saudi Arabia and Monaco resulted in a stern warning from Haas team boss Guenther Steiner.
Schumacher has avoided further costly accidents and since Canada, the German has enjoyed a turnaround in form. He finally ended his wait for his first F1 points with a brilliant drive to eighth at Silverstone, before following that up with sixth at the next race in Austria following a battle with Lewis Hamilton.
Despite those highlights, Schumacher has been outclassed by new teammate Kevin Magnussen, who has scored nearly twice as many points. Without a confirmed seat in the 2023 F1 driver line-up, Schumacher could really do with being a regular top-10 contender if he is to secure his place on the grid, whether it be with Haas, or another team.
Yuki Tsunoda
Neither Yuki Tsunoda or Pierre Gasly have had particularly impressive campaigns, which has not been helped by this year’s AlphaTauri proving to be far less competitive than in 2021.
To his credit, Tsunoda is calmer and more consistent this year after a difficult rookie season. The 22-year-old Japanese driver also appears to have closed the gap to Gasly in pretty much every department after a pretty one-sided intra-team battle in 2021. That is reflected in their points hauls, with Tsunoda scoring just five fewer than his teammate.
Tsunoda is out of contract at the end of this year and needs to outperform Gasly if he is ever going to convince Red Bull that he is worthy of a drive with the senior team. For the time being, he needs to worry about securing his current seat. Poorly-judged moves like the one at Silverstone which ruined both his and Gasly’s races won’t help his cause.
Lance Stroll
One driver who has been overshadowed by their teammate so far in 2022 is Lance Stroll. Despite missing the first two races with COVID-19, Sebastian Vettel has generally out-qualified and out-raced Stroll, managing 12 points more.
Stroll, who was also outpaced by Vettel’s stand-in Nico Hulkenberg on one occasion, has finished no higher than a quadruple of 10th places at Imola, Miami, Montreal and France in what has been a difficult sixth season in F1 for the 23-year-old Canadian.
While his seat is considered relatively safe given that his billionaire father Lawrence owns the team, Stroll still needs to up his game, particularly if Aston Martin can produce a competitive car. His job won’t get any easier when Fernando Alonso arrives at the team next season.
Nicholas Latifi
Nicholas Latifi has been comprehensively outperformed by new teammate Alex Albon so far this season, with the Anglo-Thai racer 11-2 up on their qualifying head-to-heads and 10-3 up on their race head-to-heads.
Albon has also scored all of the team’s three points, with Latifi failing to claim a top-10 finish as yet, with his best result - P12 - achieved at the British Grand Prix after reaching Q3 for the first time in his career.
With Williams no longer needing to rely on a driver’s financial backing, Latifi’s lacklustre performances leave him facing a battle to keep his place on the F1 grid.
Daniel Ricciardo
For the second year running, Daniel Ricciardo has been unable to match teammate Lando Norris’ impressive form both in qualifying and on race day. Out of McLaren’s haul of 95 points across the opening 13 rounds, the charismatic Australian has been responsible for just 19 of them.
It is therefore no surprise to see Ricciardo only 12th in the championship, while Norris sits a strong seventh behind only Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes drivers. His lack of points has also enabled Alpine to edge ahead in the battle for P4 in the constructors’ standings.
Many expected the eight-time grand prix winner to step up in 2022 after a difficult transition year, but Ricciardo’s struggles have shown no signs of stopping. It has been reported that McLaren intends to replace the charismatic Australian with Oscar Piastri next year.
