The Silliest of Silly Seasons: a Timeline of the F1 2022 Silly Season

Posted on September 17, 2022 | by Lydia Angel-Fox

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The F1 summer break is called Silly Season for a reason as it is a time of chaos and uncertainty for both drivers and fans alike, with surprise contract announcements coming out week by week. The 2022 Silly Season was no exception, and one might even claim that this has been the silliest of all Silly Seasons to date.

The 2022 Silly Season began with rumours swirling about Daniel Ricciardo's future with McLaren given his less than stellar season with the team. On July 13th, ahead of the 2022 summer break, Ricciardo seemingly put these rumours to bed with a short instagram post stating that he was "committed to McLaren until the end of next year and not walking away from the sport." With the issue seemingly settled, Ricciardo fans breathed a sigh of relief.

In an unfortunate manner of foreshadowing, Instagram was about to become the platform of choice for a whole host of Silly Season drama.

On July 28th, F1 fans were in turmoil when Sebastian Vettel created his first Instagram account. Vettel had, up to that point, been the only driver on the grid without any form of social media. However, much to the F1 community's horror, Vettel's first and only Instagram post announced his retirement from the sport after 15 years and 4 World Champion titles.

While significant in its own right due to the impact that Sebastian Vettel has had on the sport, his retirement also created a vacancy for potential F2 hopefuls.

On August 1st, the F1 community was further shocked when two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso announced that he would be leaving Alpine to fill the now-vacant seat at Aston Martin. Alonso's move, however, signalled a positive development for former F2 Champion and Alpine reserve driver Oscar Piastri, as he was the obvious shoo-in for Alonso's former Alpine seat.

To no-ones surprise, on August 2nd, Oscar Piastri was announced as the driver who would fill Alonso's vacant Alpine seat for the 2023 season. Alpine issued statements on Instagram and twitter, which were quickly picked up by F1 news sites, and congratulations began pouring in from other drivers and teams. However, the celebration was short-lived, as speculation began surfacing that not all was correct in the Piastri-camp given the lack of statement from Piastri concerning his announcement.

Hours passed with rumours surfacing that Oscar Piastri had also been in talks with McLaren and Williams for a 2023 seat given that Alonso was contracted to continue with Alpine until the vacancy at Aston Martin opened up with Vettel's retirement. At 1:30pm EST, August 2nd, Oscar Piastri posted to Instagram and Twitter stating that Alpine had issued the press release without his knowledge and that he did not have a contract to drive with team for the 2023 season. Given that Piastri seemed to be passing up his most obvious opportunity to race in Formula 1, it was clear that the young Australian must have been in negotiation with another team.

The rest of the summer break passed with radio silence from both Alpine, and Piastri. However, new developments began on August 20th, just before the Belgian Grand Prix. It was announced that McLaren and Alpine would be going to the Contract Recognition Board, as both teams claimed that they had valid contracts for Piastri to drive for them in the 2023 season.

Once again, F1 fans were shocked, as a Piastri-McLaren contract meant that Daniel Ricciardo's previous statement that he would remain in contract with McLaren until the end of the 2023 season was now at risk. On August 24th, Daniel Ricciardo posted an Instagram reel stating that he had been bought out of his contract by McLaren and that he would no longer be driving for the team during the 2023 season. One week later, on Sept. 2nd, McLaren announced that Oscar Piastri would be joining the team to partner Lando Norris for the 2023 season.

After a short break from the drama, Williams announced shortly before the Singapore Grand Prix that Latifi would be leaving the team, unfortunately to no ones surprise.

With rumours circulating that Alpine was pursuing Pierre Gasly for their second seat, the drama resumed. After weeks of speculation and rumours, the news broke at 9am Suzuka time. Pierre Gasly will be joining Alpine to partner Esteban Ocon, his former karting rival, to complete the full french lineup at the french team. Within seconds, AlphaTauri announced that Nyck de Vries would replace Gasly, giving the 27 year old dutchman his well-deserved Formula 1 debut.

And then there were two. Williams and Haas have yet to decide on their 2023 driver lineups but news will likely come soon. Logan Sargeant remains the Williams favourite, while Haas continues to evaluate Mick Schumacher's performance with Nico Hulkenberg and Antonio Giovinazzi on standby. And as for Daniel Ricciardo... well his prospects remain bleak but rumour has it there might be a spot for him as a Mercedes reserve driver. Fingers crossed.