The curious case of McLaren in F1 2022

Highlights from the Austrian Grand Prix

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George Russell rated 7.5/10 for Austria recovery

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Pierre Gasly given 4.5/10 on worst weekend for AlphaTauri

While the struggles of Daniel Ricciardo have been firmly in the spotlight in the first half of 2022, McLaren themselves have had something of an odd year so far.

Their form on track has arguably seen them have the biggest peaks and troughs from race to race of any of the teams on the grid, with neither car anywhere near the points in Bahrain, before Lando Norris took a podium finish at Imola just three races later.

A run of P15, to P7, to P5, to P3 in the first four races is quite a turnaround.

While the MCL36 has been pretty competitive at times, they’ve only amassed half the amount of points that they had at the same stage last season (81 compared to 163).

A large portion of why their start has stuttered can come down to how Norris, whose remarkable run of only once finishing outside the top five in the first 11 races last year – perhaps he’s the rightful Mr Consistency instead of George Russell? – could not be replicated in their 2022 challenger.

They still occupy fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship at the moment, although Alpine currently share their points tally, having made only a four-point improvement on their 2021 tally after 11 rounds last year.

This is a case, then, where McLaren have gone backwards, yet they’re staying in the same place.

They’ve done a good job of