2022 Formula 1 Driver Lineup
With the 2021 FIA Formula One World Championship finally over, it’s time to look forward to the next season. New rules and regulations are anticipated to shake up the sport and, more importantly, promote overtaking. But while the cars are going to look at a lot different than they have over the past eight years, the drivers are going to look quite familiar.
Let’s quickly get the teams with the same drivers out of the way first: Red Bull Racing, Ferrari, McLaren, Alpine, AlphaTauri, Aston Martin Racing, and Haas F1. Many of their teammate battles were close in 2021 and it should be interesting to see how they evolve in 2022, especially now that rookies like Tsunoda and Schumacher have got a full season’s worth of experience under their belts.
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Mercedes: Russell in for Bottas
The first big change is at Mercedes. Valtteri Bottas, who grabbed 10 wins and 20 pole positions as Lewis Hamilton’s wingman, is finally stepping down. The Finn says he was tired of receiving offers for one-year contracts only. That said, his replacement — Mercedes junior driver George Russell — had been wasting his talents at Williams for three years and it was about time that he got his chance in competitive machinery.
Additionally, if Mercedes expects the field to be more competitive in 2022, it’s especially important that it hires drivers whose abilities will make the difference. Unlike Hamilton, Bottas has not been decisive at races where Mercedes doesn’t have the outright best car.
Alfa Romeo: Räikkönen retired, Zhou hired
Bottas will replace his fellow Finn, Kimi Räikkönen, at Alfa Romeo Racing. Twenty years after his first season in F1, Räikkönen is finally retiring (for good this time). He was one of the most exciting drivers of the 2000s and his media-averse attitude has been forever etched in F1 legend.
The other Alfa Romeo driver, Antonio Giovinazzi, is also saying goodbye to the sport after three years of not really impressing anybody. He only seemed average when put against Räikkönen, and while the one-time champion was once highly rated, you’ve got to do better than struggle to beat a 42-year-old driver to cut it in F1.
Giovinazzi will instead race in Formula E as rookie Guanyu Zhou takes over his seat in F1. Zhou finished third in the Formula 2 championship this year behind Robert Shwartzman and Oscar Piastri, who many feel was snubbed. Piastri won the F2 title in his rookie season as well as the F3 title the year before, also in his rookie season, while Zhou could only finish third in his third F2 season. The Chinese driver, however, represents significant sponsorship opportunities for Alfa Romeo.
Williams: Second chance for Albon
Alexander Albon will be returning to full-time driving responsibilities, replacing Russell at Williams. After racing for Scuderia Toro Rosso (now AlphaTauri) in 2019 and being compared unfavorably to Max Verstappen in 2020 (then again, who isn’t), Albon spent 2021 as a reserve and simulation driver for Red Bull Racing. He’ll have to step up his performances, like Gasly at Alpha Tauri, to show he deserves to be more than just a backup driver.
In conclusion, there will only be one new face in the 2022 F1 driver lineup. Consistency, of course, is a good thing to have when the rules are getting shaken up, and teammate battles may shape up quite differently than we’ve seen in the past depending on how well drivers adapt to the new cars.
Kurt Verlin was born in France and lives in the United States. Throughout his life he was always told French was the language of romance, but it was English he fell in love with. He likes cats, music, cars, 30 Rock, Formula 1, and pretending to be a race car driver in simulators; but most of all, he just likes to write about it all. See more articles by Kurt.