Formula 1 2022 Season

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 last year 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’ll also be doing a series of single weekend bingo cards – the most recent is Spain.

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)

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.

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.

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.