The 2022 season of Formula One concluded under the lights of a night race in Abu Dhabi. With battles still raging for final positions in the driver and constructor standings, everything was left on the track before the sport headed into its winter break in advance of the 2023 season.
The most watched battle would be for second in the driver’s championship as Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc entered the race tied and starting in two and three on the grid, respectively.
The two Red Bulls jumped out to an early lead with Leclerc in tow.
Both Max Verstappen and Perez looked to have dominant race pace in the opening laps, all but assuring Perez’s finish ahead of his Ferrari rival in the drivers’ standing race.
However, after the first pit stops were complete, Leclerc began chewing into Perez’s lead and looked to catch him in a handful of laps. This compelled Red Bull to bring Perez in for a second pit stop, putting Perez in a position to hunt down Leclerc on fresher tires over the final twenty or so laps.
The gambit almost paid off as Perez clawed all the way back to just over one second behind Leclerc, but it was not enough. Verstappen crossed the finish line in first, securing his record-setting fifteenth victory of the season, with Leclerc in second and Perez in third.
The result earned Leclerc second in the 2022 drivers’ standings.
Further down the order, the two Mercedes performed well, but simply did not have the pace of Red Bull or Ferrari. Mercedes entered the day with an opportunity to finish second in the Constructors’ Championship but were unable to leapfrog Ferrari and will have to settle for third.
Alpine officially finished the season in fourth and “best of the rest” despite having to retire Fernando Alonso’s car due to a water leak and a double points finish from McLaren, who finished just behind in fifth.
The retirement marks the end of a rapidly deteriorating relationship between Alonso and his current team. He will drive for Aston Martin next year, while AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly will take his seat with Alpine
Alfa Romeo and Aston Martin both finished the season tied, followed by Haas, AlphaTauri, and Williams.
Driver of the Day honors went to Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel, who ends his storied Formula One career with the conclusion of the 2022 season. The four-time driver champion barely finished in the points in Abu Dhabi, but clearly had more pace than the result indicated.
Poor team strategy and a bad pit stop ultimately hurt Vettel’s race day, but he battled until the very end for maximum points, threatening to pass McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo in the closing turns.
With Logan Sargeant securing enough super license points with the conclusion of the Formula Two season, the grid for next year is completely set. Along with the retiring Vettel, Mick Schumacher of Haas, Nicholas Latifi of Williams, and Daniel Ricciardo of McLaren will not be returning to the sport next season.
Sargeant joins Oscar Piastri and Nyck de Vries as new faces for the 2023 season.
With a record 24 races on the calendar next year, including three in the United States, Formula One looks to build on the wild success of the sport’s growing appeal outside of Europe.
And while the teams head into their winter break, preseason testing begins in late February, with the first race kicking off in March.