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As Formula 1 headed into a brand new era, the FormulaNerds team put our reputations on the line and tried our best to predict what the sport had in store for us during the 2022 season.
There were some impressive predictions. There were some…less impressive predictions.
Let’s dive in and see who amongst our ranks is the true F1 Nostradamus.
Abby
Deputy Editor and podcast everpresent Abby predicted a “four-horse race between Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari, and McLaren”. Whilst only two – or maybe even one – of those made it into the title race, she was certainly onto something in the Red Bull camp…
“I think Perez will start racing for himself more and want to get those podiums.”
Whether or not you buy into those rumours about Monaco, Perez clearly started doing his best to look out for number one – meaning himself, not the team number one in car number one – as the season came to a close, but we all know how that played out.
Abby’s prediction that Alpine and AlphaTauri would be battling against each other again this year didn’t come to fruition, but she was right to say “Haas would be closer to the midfield and close the gap after their development last season on the 2022 car”.
Bridge
FormulaNerds’ hot-take aficionado and resident Tifoso Bridge had total faith in his beloved Scuderia for 2022, saying:
“After 15 long years, Ferrari’s time has finally come. With an era-defining aero system and legendary driver lineup, Ferrari will take home both the Constructors’ and Drivers’ World Championships in 2022.”
Sadly for Bridge, whilst the aero looked promising, the Tifosi have once again been left waiting for at least one more year.
Bridge’s predictions were, in fact, looking great after the first few races as he also predicted Red Bull to suffer reliability problems. However, Red Bull’s season improved as much as Bridge’s prediction worsened. If only you hadn’t added those second set of brackets, my friend…
“Red Bull will struggle with reliability after throwing everything (plus the kitchen sink) at Verstappen’s inaugural (and last) world title in 2021.”
Catherine
Formula E Editor Catherine is also a Ferrari fan and also believed in the boys and girls from Maranello.
“I believe that Ferrari will go out to surprise everyone … the atmosphere around their team looks promising. They will not go on to win the championship – I think Mercedes and Red Bull will be the ones battling it out again – but I do think that Ferrari is going to cost them some points.”
Not a bad guess all things considered and Catherine complemented it with the prediction that Carlos Sainz would get his first win.
Her belief that Charles Leclerc’s Monaco curse would perhaps end this year proved to be less accurate, though, and she also had a little too much faith in Williams, whom she expected to “be stronger”.
Dalila
Straight out of the gate, W Series Editor Dalila nails one element of the 2022 ‘silly season’:
“Pierre Gasly leaves Red Bull … Gasly’s future cannot be to remain forever at AlphaTauri, hence it’s easy to imagine he will try to move out of Helmut Marko’s sphere of influence.”
But – at least as things stand – her prediction regarding Lewis Hamilton would seem to be less accurate.
“If Mercedes won’t achieve the same level of competitiveness, Hamilton might leave the sport and the 2022 season might be the last dance for him.”
The seven-time champion doesn’t appear to be about to follow Michael Jordan into retirement just yet.
Lena
Lena had three very clear predictions.
The first – “Carlos Sainz will be the number one driver for Ferrari” – proved to be a bit wide of the mark. The second – “Alex Albon will drive his teammate Nicholas Latifi into the ground, even after a year off” – proved to be spot on.
The third was, in Lena’s own words, her “most controversial hot take” and sadly, for both our F1 writer and her four-time world champion compatriot – it was not an accurate hot take.
“Sebastian Vettel will have a chance to win his fifth world championship.”
Oli
So, what did the boss think?
FormulaNerds founder Oli used his managerial nous to analyse the teams’ gameplans, deducing that after Red Bull and Mercedes’ epic title fight “it is likely that more resources and finances were dedicated to the very end to winning the 2021 championships than the other teams”.
We won’t get started on Red Bull’s finances, but what did Oli think that would result in for 2022?
“I think Ferrari and McLaren will be fighting at the top in 2022, and we have the potential to see a new world champion.”
The logic was certainly there, but unfortunately for Oli, Red Bull managed to cater for both a 2021 and 2022 title charge. (…What? It’s a legitimate use of the verb…)
Richard
Source of neverending F1 news and all-round Twitter hero Richard thought that 2022 offered “so much promise with new tech, new cars, new driver line-ups and a new track”.
Regardless of how much this season may have delivered or underdelivered on that promise, Richard sadly underdelivered a little in his headline prediction.
“The title contenders will include Carlos Sainz (who will again outperform Charles) and a sustained challenge from the McLarens and the Alpines.”
His gut feeling that “the new regulations will close the field up but overtaking will not be as easy as ‘promised’” was perhaps a little closer to the mark, though.
James
And how about yours truly?
Well, I will do my very best not to sound smug here, but I did get one thing spot on.
“If Aston Martin nail the regulations, Sebastian Vettel will be a championship contender. If they don’t, he will retire.”
Of course, they did not, and he did. My other main prediction started great but tailed off a bit… “Mercedes will miss a trick and fall back somewhat, whilst an unexpected midfield team finds a loophole.”
Sadly there was no surprise jump from the midfield to the front, as – despite their iffy couple of years – you certainly can’t consider Ferrari’s resurgence a surprise.
Sam
And last but not least, Editor-in-Chief and the other half of my hivemind, Mr Samuel Coop.
He, as often happens, mirrored my thoughts. Unfortunately, though, he chose the wrong half of my Vettel prediction to double down on.
“Sebastian Vettel will win his fifth title in 2022.”
Things got a little better as he predicted Ferrari to battle it out for the Constructors’, although he thought that would be with Mercedes as “Red Bull will have taken a relative step back”.
Sam finishes his prediction firmly on the fence with the outlandish statement that “one team will make major gains, and another will make major losses”, but maybe somehow fell off said fence, because…well, did anyone actually?
Featured Image Credit: Formula 1
