The 2022 Formula 1 campaign ended with Max Verstappen taking his second world championship and Red Bull winning the constructors’ title almost ten years after their last presence at the top of Formula 1. Despite the dominance of the Milton Keynes team, the last season was also marked Ferrari’s return to fighting for pole positions and race wins, even being indicated as favorite for the title in the early stages of the championship after Charles Leclerc’s victories in Bahrain and Australia, before errors in terms of strategy calls from the Maranello pit wall and reliability problems gradually led to a missed opportunity for the Maranello team this season.
In all this, there was also the collapse of another top team like Mercedes out of battle for the title, for the first time after eight consecutive years of dominance: Mercedes was able to take only one victory with George Russell who, together with other disappointing results, meant a third place in the constructors’ championship. More or less positive confirmations, evolutions and surprises that particularly appealed to a great figure from Formula 1’s past like Paddy Lowe.
The British engineer, who in just over thirty years of career has held prestigious roles in teams such as McLaren and Williams, as well as Mercedes, particularly appreciated the last world championship, starting with the newfound competitiveness of the Maranello team: “I enjoyed seeing Ferrari’s return to the top, they developed a great car” – explained the 60-year-old in an interview for planetf1.com – “And it’s a real shame that in the end this excellent work didn’t translate into better results. It was nice to see them with a good car, but the season was not that positive, because they didn’t get as many victories as they could have.” – the founder and CEO of the fossil-free synthetic fuel company Zero Petroleum added.
Asked about to the rest of the grid, Paddy Lowe underlined the main changes at the top of the standings, while still admitting some disappointment for the lack of real outsiders that could have challenged the three top teams: “To see a change in the championship order between the three leading teams has undoubtedly been a breath of fresh air” – he continued – “I think it is noteworthy, and it does not surprise me at all, the fact that the same three teams are at the top despite the budget cap, all thanks to engineering excellence and to the design tools of great cars that do not fail with the cost limit. So I guess it was good to see some confusion, but from another point of view it’s still a shame that there is so much scatter on the grid. I like the risk in racing so I like to see different things happening and people struggling but succeeding. The season has been very varied, I know Max has won many races, but despite this there has been a lot of variety, so I think it’s good.” – Paddy Lowe concluded.
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