Formula 1 2022 – Season

The Formula 1 2022 season is over now and we hope to see you in March 2023 when we’ll have a brand new F1 2023 season bingo card for you to play with!

Why Play Formula 1 2022 Season Bingo?

If you have a group of friends or family that you regularly watch Formula 1 with, it can really add to the entertainment value if each of you has a different bingo card to complete over the course of the season.  Consider this: if you’re a fan of one of the top teams you may not care too much about what goes on with the backmarkers – but what if you had a bingo card for the 2021 season that included Haas Q2 and/or Williams Points?  Suddenly, what’s going on at the back of the grid becomes as interesting as what’s going on at the front!  You might also have found yourself cheering on a driver you wouldn’t normally support if it meant you could cross off “Win home grand prix” or “Win teammate home grand prix”.

You’ll need to follow the whole Formula 1 2022 season for the bingo to work properly, but don’t worry if you’re only an occasional watcher, we also have Grand Prix Weekend bingo cards for playing over a single race weekend.

What’s On The Formula 1 2022 Season Bingo Card?

Included is everything we could think of, that has a reasonable chance of happening at least once over the course of the season, but not every race. Having said that, anything can happen in Formula One and here are just a few of the things that happened last year that definitely weren’t on the bingo card!

• McLaren 1-2 (Monza)
• Restart with only one car on track (Hungary – not the only unlikely thing that happened in that race!)
• Williams front row (Belgium – and let’s not even get on to the other stuff that happened, or rather didn’t happen, at Spa)

Conversely, several things that were on last year’s card DIDN’T happen:

• Red Bull 1-2 (and they looked so dominant in testing!)
• 3 or more SC or red flag restarts in one race (reduced to 2 for this year’s card)
• Driver on 9 or more superlicence points (retained for this year as several are getting very close)
• None of the top 4 on the grid finish in the top 4 in the race (reduced to top 3 for this year)
• A team other than Red Bull does a sub 2 second pit stop (this became impossible after a mid year rule change)

With only 2 races left, not much remains on the card and a couple of the items that are left – shoey and all British podium – are not looking at all likely to happen. The other remaining items are pit lane crash, maiden podium, penalty demotes driver from the podium, driver gets 4 or more penalty points in one weekend, top 4 finish in grid positions, none of top 3 on the grid finish on the podium, race has 0 retirements, race has 12 or fewer finishers and sponsor withdraws mid season. For most of these, we’d need some kind of a crazy race along the lines of Monza 2020 or Hungary 2021.

What Is Trackside Despair?

If you’ve got this on your card and don’t know what it is – it’s a driver reaction after a crash or mishap, that is worthy of inclusion in the Imola Picnic Meme.

The first instance of trackside despair in the 2022 season was in Formula 2 rather than Formula 1. Check out the video of Juri Vips crashing out of the lead in the Baku feature race.

It finally occurred in F1 halfway through the season.  In most cases of trackside despair, the driver feels to blame for what happened, but at the Red Bull Ring Carlos Sainz was undone by a very spectacular engine failure.  The despair, as he sat by the side of the track, was coming to terms with his chance of mounting a title charge quite literally going down in flames, and knowing that he would have to support his teammate for the remainder of the season.

I Missed Some Races – Can I Still Play?

Yes you can!  Check back on this page a few days after the race to see what you missed marking off.

Race 1 – Bahrain

• Driver complains safety car is too slow – That was Leclerc, about the very first safety car of the season
• 1-2 any team – Boom! Ferrari get there early doors
• Substitute driver (in race) – #Hulkenback
• Double DNF any team – Red Bull pain
• K-Mag points – he came 5th
• Sainz podium without Leclerc DNF – obvs

Red Bull had a pit stop oopsie during this race (trackrod damage to Verstappen’s car) but not spectacularly bad enough to qualify as Pit stop fail – for that, we’re thinking something like Bottas at Monaco 2021.

Race 2 – Saudi Arabia

• Maiden pole – Sergio Perez, who now holds the record for the longest F1 career before taking a pole position. This was his 215th race weekend; the previous record holder was Mark Webber with 130 races.  Perez relinquishes the record he previously held for most races without a pole position to Romain Grosjean.  Perez is also the first Mexican driver ever to take pole.
• Russell qualifies ahead of Hamilton – Russell qualified 6th whereas Hamilton had setup issues and didn’t make it out of Q1
• Last lap overtake – Ocon overtook Norris on the final lap for P6
• Crash or failure on way to grid – Tsunoda’s car had an engine issue on the way to the grid and he was unable to start the race
• 2 or more red flags in qualy – Q1 and Q2 were both red flagged after crashes for Latifi and Schumacher, the latter so violent that the car broke in half.  Schumacher was unhurt but didn’t compete in the race.
• Pit lane closed during qualy or race – The pit lane was closed during the Virtual Safety Car period late in the race so that the stricken cars of Alonso and Ricciardo could be moved out of the pit lane entry.  This meant that Hamilton was unable to pit.

Hamilton not being called in before the closure and Alfa Romeo not serving a penalty correctly were this race’s pit stop oopsies, but again not bad enough to qualify as Pit stop fail.

After a multi lap battle between their two drivers, Alpine instructed Ocon to hold station.  This doesn’t count as Team orders! – it requires an actual switch in position between the two.

Race 3 – Australia

• Driver gets 2 penalties in same weekend – Stroll was given a (meaningless as it had no effect on his starting position) 3 place grid penalty plus 2 penalty points for causing a collision with Latifi during qualifying, and a 5 second time penalty plus 1 penalty point for weaving on the straight during the race.
• 2 or more (SC or red flag) restarts in one race – The first safety car was caused by Sainz ending his race in the gravel very early in the race and the second by Vettel spinning into the barriers on lap 23.
• Both drivers from a team cause a red flag or SC in the same weekend – oh dear, oh dear, Aston Martin!  Both drivers crashed in FP3 causing separate red flags and as if that wasn’t enough, Stroll’s crash with Latifi caused a red flag in Q1 and Vettel’s crash in the race caused a SC.

Team orders! didn’t happen as no-one was actually instructed to swap positions (both Ricciardo and Hamilton were told not to try and overtake their teammates) and Russell’s reluctance to stop defending hard against Perez in order to look after his tyres doesn’t count as Driver argues about team orders as it didn’t involve his teammate.

Race 4 – Imola

• Rain is forecast but doesn’t happen – A LOT of rain happened during the Imola race weekend, but the rain that was forecast for 20-30 minutes into the race never arrived.
• Brakes on fire – Albon had a brake fire during qualy which caused the rear right tyre to explode, wrecking the back of the car.
• Wets/inters used race – everyone started the race on the intermediate tyre
• Lapped by team mate – as in 2021, this was Norris lapping Ricciardo.  Ricciardo was plumb last due to a first lap collision with Sainz and a poor tyre choice later in the race.
• Wets/inters used qualy – it started with a wet track and then there was another rain shower during Q2.
• Sausage kerb airborne accident – if you were paying attention, you’ll have spotted that Leclerc’s crash late in the race was caused by going over a sausage kerb.

We came VERY close to Pit lane crash when Ocon was released into the path of Hamilton and there was contact, but both drivers were able to continue.

Race 5 – Miami

• Front row lockout any team – Ferrari

If you thought you could cross off Team orders! you can’t – turns out the order for Russell to let Hamilton back past (which he did for just long enough to get DRS to repass right away) came from the FIA and not Mercedes.

Race 6 – Spain

• Team orders! – Not a good look to be doing this so early in the season, Red Bull.  But not quite as bad as Austria 2002.

And no, you can’t cross off Driver argues about team orders – “That’s very unfair. But OK” isn’t arguing.

Race 7 – Monaco

• Spin, crash or collision behind safety car – Latifi and Stroll both had mishaps during the laps on full wets behind the safety car, before the first of the two red flags
• Pit stop fail – not quite what we had in mind for this one, but Ferrari’s antics turned an almost certain win for Leclerc into a 4th position. They pitted him for inters, then for slicks just a few laps later, but it’s the way in which the second pit stop was executed that’s the fail.  They called him in, then shouted at him to stay out when he was already in the pit lane, then he had to wait behind Sainz while they executed a double stack.  No wonder all the Ferrari clown memes started circulating again!

Race 8 – Baku

• Driver argues about team orders – you were expecting this to be at Ferrari or Red Bull, weren’t you?  But it was Norris, frustrated at being behind his teammate as the race neared its conclusion.

Race 9 – Canada

• Speeding in the pit lane – Norris picked up a 5 second time penalty for this.
• Animal on the track – Latifi hit a groundhog.  It was in FP3 not the race but has been widely reported and shared on social media.
• Driver fails to set timed lap in qualy 2 – As well as Leclerc, who didn’t bother to set a time in Q2 because he was starting from the back of the grid anyway, there was Norris who had a PU issue.

We got oh so close to driver makes up 15+ places from grid position – Leclerc started 19th and finished 5th.  There’s plenty more scope for this one later in the season as there are bound to be several more engine replacement grid penalties!

Race 10 – Silverstone

• Maiden win – Sainz won and this also gives him the best pole to win conversion rate of anyone on the grid – 100%!
• Teammate collision – oh dear, that synchonised spin executed by the Alpha Tauris after touching on lap 11!
• 3+ cars fail to cross the start finish line at the end of lap 1 – they ALL failed to do so due to the horrifying startline crash and immediate red flag and 3 cars retired on the spot.  Thankfully no-one was injured.

Race 11 – Austria

• Trackside despair – Carlos Sainz after his Ferrari BBQ’d itself
• Stalled on the grid – We didn’t mean literally stalled (F1 cars don’t do that).  Alonso’s failure to start the formation lap due to a technical issue and Zhou’s engine cutting out during the formation lap rendering a second formation lap necessary both fit the bill!

Race 12 – France

Nothing to cross off this race, although we came oh so close to pit lane crash thanks to Ferrari.   Speaking for Ferrari,  if they had executed their strategy a little better, we’d have had driver makes up 15+ places from grid position (Sainz went from P19 to P5 but ran as high as P3).  There’s still plenty of time for someone to pull this off this season, with many engine related grid penalties still looming.

Race 13 – Hungary

• Driver announces retirement – Sebastian Vettel

We came really close to race has 0 retirements – Bottas had a mechanical failure just a couple of laps from the end.

Race 14 – Spa

• “Tyres are gone” – yes, this old chestnut finally made an appearance (but it was Russell rather than Hamilton who said it, during practice and in the race).

Yet again, someone nearly made up 15 places from their grid position.  Verstappen went from 15th to 1st but it was really only 12 places as both Alpha Tauri cars which were due to start ahead of him ended up starting from the pit lane.

Race 15 – Zandvoort

• Win home grand prix – as was widely predicted, Verstappen won at home in the Netherlands

Race 16 – Monza

Nothing to see here, but yet again there was a near miss of driver makes up 15+ places from grid position. Two near misses, actually – Hamilton and Sainz made up 14 places apiece.  There’s also a near miss that could be converted into a hit over the next few races – driver on 9+ penalty points.  Tsunoda is now on 8 penalty points, and they don’t start to expire until November.

Race 17 – Singapore

Nothing to see here either, but lots of repeats of items already marked off.

Race 18 – Japan

You can mark off driver on 9+ penalty points – but blink and you’ll miss it.  Gasly received 2 penalty points for speeding under a red flag, taking his total VERY briefly to 9 – 2 of the accrued penalty points expired the very next day as they were for a collision with Alonso in last year’s Turkish Grand Prix.

Race 19 – COTA

Again, nothing to see here.

Race 20 – Mexico City

As expected, win teammate home grand prix can be marked off.  We also came the closest this season to race has 0 retirements, with the entire field still running after 50 laps.  And just to cement the driver on 9+ penalty points, Gasly now has 10, putting him in a spot of bother as they don’t start to expire until two months into the 2023 season.  Whoever gets the Alpine reserve driver role for next season better make sure they are race fit!

Race 21 – Sao Paulo

You can mark off sponsor withdraws mid season even though FTX were pushed rather than jumped from Mercedes.

Race 22 – Abu Dhabi

And that’s a wrap for the 2022 season, with no further items to be crossed off (8 out of original 50) although there was another near miss for pit lane crash when Russell was released into the path of Norris after an unusually slow pit stop.

Stuff we could never have predicted

Just like last year, some truly unexpected stuff happened that wasn’t on the 2022 bingo card!  How about these:

• Someone makes their only pit stop on the last possible lap (Albon in Australia)
• Collision during qualy (Stroll and Latifi in Australia)
• All three qualy segments are red flagged (Imola)
• A single qualy segment is red flagged 3+ times (also Imola, amazing what a drop of rain will do)
• Starting grid lights broken (Monaco)
• Debris from another car stuck in the floor (Verstappen at Silverstone – and it also happened to Bottas at the 2020 Turkish Grand Prix)
• Driver told to box while in the middle of an overtaking move (Sainz in France)
• Someone sets a purple sector but still qualifies last (Latifi in Hungary)
• No-one starts in their qualifying position (Spa, due to engine and other grid penalties)
• A driver gets a penalty for not serving a penalty correctly (Gasly at COTA)
• Q3 appearance by all full time drivers (who’d have thought that was possible!)

See you in February 2023 for pre season testing – and if you’ve got any ideas about what should be on next year’s card, we’d love to hear them.

How To Play Formula One Season Bingo

1. Tap To Start
2. Add any extra events you want to appear on your cards to the list (it already contains more than 50 events which is plenty for creating a set of cards to play with so this is optional)
3. We suggest keeping the grid size at 5×5 to ensure there’s enough items to hold everyone’s interest all the way through the season.
4. Generate Bingo Cards
5. To play for the entire season we recommend printed cards.  You can generate a set to print by entering the number you want in the Custom Number To Print box.  It’s best to print several more than you need in case your watch party grows as the season progresses, and also so that people can pick a card they think will be fun to play (e.g. a Danny Ric fan might want their card to include Shoey! – or on the other hand might not want to be reminded how unlikely it’s looking after Mclaren’s nightmare start to the season)
6. Generate Printable Cards; this takes you to a page with all your cards on which you can print or save for later.
7. Alternatively you can invite through email; this sends each of your chosen recipients a link to their own unique card.
8. Watch and enjoy!  The winner is the first to mark everything off on their card, or if no-one manages to do that, the person with the most squares marked when the season ends at Yas Marina on November 20th.