Top 3 biggest shocks of 2022 F1 season

The 2022 F1 season was far more straightforward if you compare it to the rollercoaster the 2021 season was.

There were race wins for McLaren, Alpine, and a surprise pole for Lando Norris. This season did not have too many curveballs, as most things happened as expected. However, some moments left fans and pundits scratching their heads in disbelief.

The 2022 season did throw up a shock or two along the way. Let's take a look at the top three:

#3 Haas taking pole

This is the kind of shocker one does not tend to expect even in a normal season, but it happened.

The 2022 season had Haas, a team that finished last in 2021, take pole at the Brazilian GP. Sure, there was a role played by the changing conditions and the fortuitous red flag brought out by George Russell. Nevertheless, if Haas did not have the pace to post an impressive lap time, Kevin Magnussen would not have secured pole.

The race did more or less see the order sort itself out, but it was fun to see Magnussen score pole in an F1 career that he thought had ended with Haas in 2020.

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#2 Mercedes messing up 2022 F1 title challenge

"My Team does not make mistakes" is a quote that's going to haunt Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes for a long time.

In essence, though, the Mercedes driver was not wrong. The team had won eight consecutive championships heading into the 2022 season. Since 2014, the first time the sport ran with a turbo hybrid engine, Mercedes weren't displaced from the top of the standings as a constructor.

When Mercedes brought a new different-looking car that had no sidepods in the second pre-season test, the initial impression even before the car hit the track was that the car could have an advantage over the rest of the grid. As soon as it hit the grid, though, expectations did not meet reality. The Mercedes challenger suffered from severe porpoising and produced excess drag.

As a result, for the first time in eight years, Mercedes had a car that was not capable of winning the title. The team did pick up a pole position and a race win, but overall, it was not a season to be proud of in any way. After the disaster in Abu Dhabi last year, Mercedes needed to fight back, which many fans and pundits expected.

However, watching the two Mercedes drivers in a distant third fastest car in the grid was a shock to a fanbase that had seen the Silver Arrows reign supreme for close to a decade.

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#1 Silly season chaos

In what was arguably one of the most shocking silly seasons in recent times, it was almost difficult to keep track of what was going on.

It all started with Sebastian Vettel announcing his retirement from the sport on the eve of the Hungarian GP. While most of the F1 world was still in shock, there was another bombshell when Alpine's Fernando Alonso announced that he was moving to Aston Martin next season.

Funnily, that wasn't all; there was the Oscar Piastri, incident too. The Alpine junior driver was announced as Alonso's replacement for the next season.

Within hours, though, Piastri shot back and tweeted that Alpine had announced that without any prior agreement with him. Later, McLaren came into the picture, and apparently the Woking-based squad had gone behind Alpine's back to sign the young Australian for the 2023 season.

After a hearing with the contract recognition board, it was decided that Piastri would indeed move to McLaren and replace Daniel Ricciardo, whose contract was paid out by McLaren.

In all of that, Alpine came out worst, as the team not only lost one but two very good drivers to its competitors, McLaren and Alpine. Ricciardo was also the shocking loser here, as he was pushed out by McLaren and left without a seat for the next season.

When the dust finally settled, Aston Martin had the services of Fernando Alonso, McLaren poached Oscar Piastri, and Alpine signed Pierre Gasly, while Ricciardo opted for a sabbatical from the sport.

Considering the way the drivers changed teams and rearranged themselves, 2022 was one of the more chaotic silly seasons of recent times.