With the 22nd and final Formula 1 qualifying session for 2022 now in the record books, we can take the performance from Abu Dhabi as the final piece of data to give an overview of the progress made by each team.
It’s only one snapshot, but it allows you to see whose average is close to where it was for the first race in Bahrain, who is doing better or worse here and how it compares to the average for the season.
As normal, this is based on each team’s fastest lap of the weekend converted into a percentage of the single quickest lap set by anyone.
To allow us to compare apples with apples, I have reduced every team’s average for the season by 0.188%. This was how far Red Bull was off having a perfect season by being fastest at each event, and it makes it the zero datum for the averages.
| TEAM | BAHRAIN | TEAM | ABU DHABI | TEAM | SEASON AVERAGE | |||
| 1 | Ferrari | datum | 1 | Red Bull | datum | 1 | Red Bull | datum |
| 2 | Red Bull | +0.136% | 2 | Ferrari | +0.320% | 2 | Ferrari | +0.084% |
| 3 | Mercedes | +0.541% | 3 | Mercedes | +0.816% | 3 | Mercedes | +0.710% |
| 4 | Haas | +0.997% | 4 | Mclaren | +1.127% | 4 | Alpine | +1.238% |
| 5 | Alfa Romeo | +1.106% | 5 | Alpine | +1.200% | 5 | McLaren | +1.256% |
| 6 | Alpine | +1.174% | 6 | Aston Martin | +1.356% | 6 | Alfa Romeo | +1.584% |
| 7 | AlphaTauri | +1.189% | 7 | AlphaTauri | +1.664% | 7 | AlphaTauri | +1.729% |
| 8 | McLaren | +1.601% | 8 | Haas | +1.671% | 8 | Haas | +1.823% |
| 9 | Williams | +2.326% | 9 | Alfa Romeo | +1.890% | 9 | Aston Martin | +2.036% |
| 10 | Aston Martin | +2.450% | 10 | Williams | +2.629% | 10 | Williams | +2.460% |
First of all, we can see Mercedes actually lost one-lap performance as the season progressed. Yes, it had some better race results late in the season, but it does show it didn’t do as good a job as Red Bull. Obviously, Mercedes faces a big challenge next year to get back on terms with Red Bull.
Secondly, McLaren bounced back strongly from its terrible start when it was battling brake overheating problems and its average over the season ended up nip and tuck with Alpine.
The performance of Aston Martin in Abu Dhabi was a bit of a standout. The team improved as the season progressed. but not as much as Sebastian Vettel’s final qualifying lap in Abu Dhabi suggests.
