OK, so it's not technically the middle of the F1 calendar yet, but it is the middle of the calendar year, so let's take a look at each team and see how things are going in 2022...
For each team, let's take a look at their season so far, with their current standings in the drivers' (WDC) and constructors' (WCC) championships, their biggest (positive) surprise, their biggest disappointment, and one thing that absolutely must be improved across the second half of the season. Let's just say that some teams have some work to do in the second half of the year...
Mercedes
Current WCC Position: 3rd
Current WDC Position: 4th (RUS), 6th (HAM)
Biggest Surprise:
This has to be the performance of George Russell. I mean, he is the only person to finish in the top 5 at every race this year, but equally if not more impressive is his performance relative to Hamilton. OK, maybe Lewis has been less fortunate than George at times, but certainly it's hard to argue against the idea that Russell is at least a match for Lewis, and has at times beaten him. Perhaps the one silver lining (no pun intended) for the team is that without the pressure of a title fight, the chance of fireworks between teammates is much lower.
Biggest Disappointment:
The performance and characteristics of the W13. Not only is the W13 considerably slower than its predecessors relative to the competition, it is also extremely difficult to drive. Before the season, there were headlines like "this team doesn't make mistakes" and "some teams will have gotten their car designs very badly wrong" coming from Mercedes. In the words of Michael Scott, "Oh, how the turntables." Not only is the car much draggier than its predecessors and the competition, the car also has to run extremely low to the ground in order to be remotely competitive, which causes drivability problems. Yikes.
Must-See Improvements:
The team need to get their head screwed on when it comes to porpoising/bouncing/oscillations. The drivers have been the most vocal about the car being borderline unsafe to drive, and then when the FIA steps in to try to fix the issue, the team have complained. It's against their competitive interest to modify their car to be more stable, but it is against their own words to run it in such an uncomfortable state. Solving this is going to require either some incredible political savviness from Toto Wolff or some engineering breakthroughs. Either way the current path is not sustainable.
Mid-Season Grade: C-
Making the best of a bad situation, but they only have themselves to blame for that situation in the first place.
Red Bull
Ferrari
McLaren
Alpine
AlphaTauri
Aston Martin
Williams
Alfa Romeo
Haas
F1 in General
Biggest Surprise:
The 2022 regulations are generally a success. Are there teething issues? Yes. Is there still an over-reliance on DRS? Yes. But I think we can see that cars can follow closer than before, which puts more pressure on the leading driver to avoid a mistake, because the chasing pack is much closer. I had reasonable hopes that the changes would make it easier to follow and race based on the concept, but in F1 we all know that teams have a great history of twisting the rules to their own benefit.
Biggest Disappointment:
Ferrari and Mercedes have each, in their own way, robbed this season of an intriguing three-way fight for the championship. Of course, it was absolutely naïve to expect three teams to independently create equally-competitive cars in the first year of new regulations. So the fact that at least Red Bull and Ferrari are close is in and of itself a miracle. But if Mercedes managed to make a car that performs as well on the track as it does in the wind tunnel, then we would be having an absolutely epic season.
The gap between the front group and the rest (if we ignore Mercedes in no-man's land) is not that different to previous years, so hopefully in the coming years the grid will close up dramatically. But we will only know that in 18-24 months' time.
Must-See Improvements:
The sport needs to sort itself out with regards to the porpoising, bouncing, or whatever you want to call it. Because if the sport wants to be successful in a cost-cap era, it needs to be able to fairly and quickly maneuver around any unforeseen side effects of the regulations. And it needs to do so without the whole issue descending into a Mercedes-versus-Red Bull problem, which may be hard for many of the Orange Army and TeamLH faithful.
Mid-Season Grade: B
Usually a new set of regulations sets the competitive order back a few years, so for the teams to more or less pick up where they left off is a good sign for the new rules. But that doesn't mean there's not room for improvement.
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