Formula 1: Good month, bad month – May 2022

Good Month

Haas of the Viking King

K-Mag decided he’d rather duel in the desert Haas than win the IMSA Bo-diddly-Idaho Raceway 6 Hours. An incredible fifth on his comeback.

Ferrari is back!

The Scuderia scores a resounding1-2 in Bahrain. It turns out that if it looks fast, it really is fast.

F1 on the up

F1 business is booming: GP deals till end of time, a No1 Netflix series and more sponsors than ever – never mind the dodgy political affiliations and associated human-rights issues.

Look, no sidepods

Normally team innovations consist of add-ons: wings, wheels, fans – but Mercedes thought out of the pit box by almost completely removing its sidepods.

Masi’s Great Escape

The man who single-handedly caused the most controversial season-end in F1 history is given a nice back-room job, probably spending the rest of his days running FIA kart summer camps in Switzerland. Peace at last!

Bad Month

Foundational folly

After being sacked back to the stone age by Haas, Nikita Mazepin announced a foundation helping athletes excluded for political reasons. Cue a tumbleweed bigger than the Ferris wheel at Sochi Autodrom.

McLaren misstep

Fourteenth and 15th in the opener and even golden boy Lando Norris is warning of “pain” this season…

Dad, where’s my car?

Aston tech head Tom McCullough said the AMR22 it brought to testing was “nothing like” the car back in the windtunnel. Sounds like a truckie’s nightmare – picked up the wrong car?

Porpoising

Drivers are being so shaken to the core by cars bouncing down the straights, it’s surprising Formula 1hasn’t announced a new bobblehead partner yet.

Reverse FIA ferret

FIA (thankfully) compromises on Hamilton gala fine, then produces a report admitting Masi naffed up in Abu Dhabi after all. Funny, we thought it was all the fans’ fault