How will 2022’s Grid look?
Formula 1 is considered to be one of the most popular championships in Motorsport. With elite teams and the best of the best drivers in the world competing in the fighting neck to neck. The 2021 season is shaping up to be one of the exciting seasons of the decade. However, the 10 teams in the sport have already been thinking about how the season will look in 2022. The teams like Mercedes, Ferrari, Aston Martin, McLaren, Haas, Williams, Red Bull, Alpha Tauri, Alfa Romeo, and Alpine are all set up with their next year Driver Line-up.
With driver swaps, old drivers returning and speculations of new drivers coming into the sport. The season shook up when 1*World Champion Kimi Raikonnen announced his retirement at the end of the 2021 season.
What are the changes?
Major changes came in this week when this week marked the announcements of 3 teams’ driver line-ups. The most speculated driver line-up was of Mercedes who announced George Russell (previously drove from Williams Racing from 2019 as a Rookie in the sport to 2021) who will be replacing Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton’s new teammate.
Consequently, Valtteri Bottas (who is the other driver of Mercedes) will move to Alfa Romeo replacing Kimi Raikonnen. The second driver of Alfa Romeo is still to be announced.
Additionally, Alex Albon (previous driver and current Reserve driver of Red Bull from 2019-2020) will be making his comeback on the grid in 2022 replacing George Russell in Williams Racing.
With Driver swamps and comebacks the new grid is looking like this-
Mercedes– Lewis Hamilton and George Russell
McLaren – Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris
Ferrari– Carlos Sainz Jr. and Charles Leclerc
Red Bull Racing– Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez
Scuderia AlphaTauri- Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda
Alpine F1 Team– Fernando- Alonso and Esteban Ocon
Williams Racing– Alex Albon and Nicholas Latifi
Alfa Romeo Racing – Valtteri Bottas and 2nd driver TBA
Haas– Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin