GrandPrix247 2022's F1 Driver Farewells

For 2022, the F1 field remained mostly the same, most drivers who raced in 2021 were back in the field bar a couple. But at the end of this year, four drivers will not be on next year's grid, a couple at least will probably never race in F1 again, while a couple more might return wiser. Below are the farewells to these drivers.

First and foremost we say farewell to Sebastian Vettel. In his heyday the German was one of the greatest drivers of his generation, winning four F1 World Championships in a row, in a Red Bull team that was built around him, is a testament to that.

His move to Ferrari seemed a logical next step to his career. The famous Maranello outfit, every driver's dream team sought to regain the glory years they had enjoyed with another German, Michael Schumacher.

It never really happened for Seb in Red, though, it came close. But that partnership coincided with a time when Mercedes virtually took ownership of the new F1 turbo hybrid regulations. Ferrari was always playing catch up, as was Vettel.

Then along came Charles Leclerc who, in a couple of seasons, deposed the German. What might have been the end of his career was not, as Aston Martin led by Lawrence Stroll gave him a lifeline.

As hard as it is to write this, of a great driver, he was not much better than Lance Stroll in his final two years in F1. It was clear Vettel had lost his love for F1, the sport that made him what he is today. Becoming a father, a conscientious, intelligent man, he started to question his role in a sport that makes a mockery of environmental issues that he embraced.

Nevertheless, it's sad to see him go. But the reality is, the more disheveled he became the less committed he was to F1. It was sad to see his demise, especially for those of us who witnessed him at his finest.

Seb's stats show, that in 299 Grand Prix starts he started from pole position on 57 occasions, finished 122 times on the podium, 53 times as a winner, and with four F1 Titles to his name.

From us: "Have a great F1 afterlife Seb, but please don't trash-talk the sport that made you super wealthy and noticeable on a global level, that would be uncool."

The fall from grace by Dan the Man was one of the most unexpected and painful experiences witnessed in F1; the fact that McLaren paid him to end his contract earlier a year earlier than expected was a real slap in the face, exacerbated by the fact that his replacement is 'no-name-brand' Oscar Piastri.

The new Aussie kid has no pedigree in the top flight, or at least not the kind of pedigree Ricciardo had, but the writing was on the wall from the moment Dan stepped into McLaren and realized that he just could not get a handle on Lando Norris; the young gun of the future made him look ordinary, in fact, made him look bad.

And according to McLaren and Daniel himself, everything was done, every stone unturned to try and get his performance back. And while the one victory at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix, when the leaders took themselves out at Monza, is one of the recent highlights of his career, others have been scarce.

It can be argued that Dan's demise came about long ago. In fact, opting out of being Max Verstappen's teammate, and leaving Red Bull, a winning team proved to be one of the worst F1 driver decisions in memory.

He went to Renault with high expectations and a huge salary, but nothing really came of that, not unexpected for a team whose obsession at the time was to get a tattoo for the team principal...

McLaren seemed to be a lifeline. They bought into Dan being the Man and flung him a huge salary for his services, but he simply did not deliver and found himself ushered out of Woking only to find refuge for next year and beyond, at Red Bull, the team he ditched all those years ago, albeit this time around as a reserve, but who knows what could happen. This signifies that at least we haven't lost him forever, just yet...

Ricciardo's stats show that he made 232 Grand Prix starts, finishing 32 times on the podium, eight times as a winner.

Latifi's career in F1 will be remembered for triggering one of the most unsavory incidents in Formula 1 history, when he spun his car in the dying moments of the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, prompting 'that' safety car period...

He simply did not do enough to warrant being in F1 for as long as he was granted the privilege. He had the money and had experience in the feeder series to have a shot at F1, perhaps not on merit, but at least he had ticked some boxes.

However, he never impressed, he never improved, he crashed far too often, and made too many mistakes that he himself didn't understand. Often his first words over the radio, immediately after bending metal were: "I don't know what happened..."

Furthermore, in terms of pace, he was made to look downright bad by George Russell and Alex Albon, then Nyck de Vries pulverized him in a one-off drive to really show that the Canadian was not F1 material.

Coupled with that, Latifi's F1 career stats are bleak, in 61 starts he only managed to score nine points.

So no surprise when a better option came along for Williams, despite the money Nicky brings to the team, that if he will not be in F1 for the foreseeable future, and to be honest, he does not deserve a second crack.

If ever there was an F1 career that was badly managed, a case study of inevitable failure, it must be Mick Schumacher. Having ticked all the boxes in the junior series, Ferrari opted to give him a chance in the top flight, but decided against putting him in the safe haven of Alfa Romeo under the tutelage of experienced driver developer Fred Vasseur, which borders on criminal negligence.

The Reds - under Mattia Binotto - decided that Michael Schumacher's son should go to the shitshow that was Haas; a team with no reputation for developing drivers, financially strapped and simply not the place to put a Young Gun.

A year before Mick arrived, Haas had two veterans in their car in 2020. Romain Grosjean nearly killed himself in a car that he and teammate Kevin Magnussen termed as "evil" and by the end of 2020 the pair were sent packing, replaced by two rookies namely Nikita Mazepin and Schumacher.

What transpired thereafter, was the simple 'murder' of Mick's reputation and career in F1.

The 2021 car was unchanged from the shitbox of 2020. Luckily, no one got hurt in that car, and when in 2022, Haas stumbled onto a better package, Mick simply did not deliver relative to a revitalized Magnussen; the veteran Dane returned to the team and made young Mick look ordinary.

Potty mouth and clueless Guenther Steiner did all he could to wield the knife, slashing at the young German's confidence by blaming him for too many crashes and huge repair bills that came with his transgressions; which, in the end, basically eroded his confidence. So no surprise that they weren't keen to keep them.

When Ferrari money dried up, the young German found himself out of a job, and not in demand at all to stay on the grid. His stats are also uninspiring: 43 F1 starts yielded a mere 12 points.

Nevertheless, he did enough to impress Mercedes who signed him as a reserve for 2023. Who knows where his adventure will go now?

Whatever the case, we will be seeing him in F1 circles which is a good thing as, it could be said, Young Schumi deserved a better crack, and is justified another proper shot at the big time because the two years at Haas were improper, to say the least.