The season dawned with the launch of a new generation of Formula 1 cars and, 22 races later, saw Max Verstappen crowned world champion after a dominant season.

But why did Ferrari’s challenge falter — and why won’t the team get the cure that it needs? How did Mercedes turn its season around? And what did Red Bull gain — or lose — from breaching the cost cap?

Mark Hughes, Chris Medland and Damien Smith form our expert panel to look back over the year and the crucial moments that shaped the 2022 season.

As well as the championship battle, they discuss the legacy of Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo as the drivers leave the grid for 2023, look back over the fortunes and futures of all ten teams.

If a young Valtteri Bottas and his dad hadn’t spotted the sign for a go-kart race in Finland, then the Alfa Romeo driver may never have got on track, let alone partnered Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes.

In the latest podcast from our My big break series, Bottas joins Chris Medland to reveal the make-or-break moments that brought him to Formula 1. He explains the key role that porridge power played ahead of his go kart debut, the local sponsors that bankrolled his fresh tyres, and the tests that took him from the Finnish go-karting championship to an F1 seat with Williams — via a rocky GP3 season.

When Nico Rosberg retired from F1, Bottas moved from to Mercedes — and he suggests that he used his own money to buy out the Williams contract — only to be handed the Herculean task of being team-mate to Hamilton. Bottas describes how it took its toll, and reveals that he was on the brink of quitting at the end of the 2018 season before a restorative walk in a Finnish forest saw him change his mind.

Now at Alfa Romeo, Bottas talks of the hope that he can win again with the team. “I don’t see a limit,” he says. “I’m absolutely loving F1.”

Kamui Kobayashi showed so much potential as a go-karting teenager that Toyota locked him into a ten-year racing contract at the age of 14.

In our new My big break podcast episode, the Le Mans winner looks at the key moments that shaped his career, including that initial deal which took him all the way to Formula 1 — only for the team to announce that it was pulling out of the series after his third race.

Kobayashi tells Chris Medland about his grand prix debut and the “crazy” battle with Jenson Button who would be crowned world champion at the chequered flag.

He explains how he secured his return to the grid with Sauber, and why he doesn’t regret his year spent at the back of the grid with Caterham.

Now back with Toyota and set to compete in this weekend’s Le Mans 24 Hours, Kobayashi describes his new joint driver and team principal role, as well as how he sees himself helping to shape the future of motor racing.

Helio Castroneves says that destiny guided his glittering IndyCar career that’s crowned by a record-equalling four Indy 500 wins, but the path to glory was far from straightforward.

He speaks to Chris Medland in the opening episode from season two of our Big Break podcast series, charting the make-or-break moments that shaped top-level racers, engineers and managers.

Ahead of this year’s Indy 500, Castroneves recalls his early dreams of racing in Formula 1, graduating from karting in Brazil to living in Milton Keynes in British F3, and then the conversation with his sponsor that brought him to the unfamiliar ladder to IndyCar.

That journey was studded with challenge, tragedy and a court case with Emerson Fittipaldi — plus a 14-week run to victory on Dancing with the Stars, that is credited with bringing an extra 1m viewers to IndyCar.

Now in search of a record-equalling fifth Indy 500 win, Castroneves says that the sky’s the limit, with no thoughts of retirement. When we’re in this business [of racing], it’s our life, it’s what we do, it’s the air that I breathe,” he says.

If it hadn’t been for a long lunch with Niki Lauda, a willingness to swap grand prix racing for NASCAR, and a vision for a US F1 team, it’s unlikely Guenther Steiner would have found himself leading Haas in Formula 1.

In this episode from Motor Sport’s My big break series, Steiner tells Chris Medland about the make-or-break moments that brought him to his current role.

He describes his move to Jaguar’s F1 team from Ford’s World Rally team — at the behest of Lauda — and his rapid disillusionment at the corporate structure. He returned to the paddock with newly-formed Red Bull, and then transferred to its US division to set up a NASCAR team.

The American life suited Steiner so much that the Italian-born 56-year-old ended up co-founding a successful composites company and championing the idea of a US-based Formula 1 team, which brought him into contact with Gene Haas….

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown is on a mission to return the Formula 1 team to title-winning form, while also seeking success in IndyCar, Extreme E and at Le Mans. In Motor Sport’s latest My big break podcast series, he tells Chris Medland about the moments that took him from growing up as a racing fan in California, to joining a select club of F1 team bosses.

Brown recalls meeting Mario Andretti as a youngster and the F1 veteran’s advice that set him off on a racing career. He explains how he discovered his talent for marketing while trying to recruit sponsors, and growing that ability into a multi-million-dollar business that became the world’s largest marketing company.

An opportunistic phone call to legendary F1 marketeer John Hogan helped fuel Brown’s JMI business and also brought him in contact with McLaren, beginning a relationship that would ultimately see him take control of the racing operation.

Brown explains his decision to sell JMI and to turn down chances to work for Bernie Ecclestone and Liberty Media before McLaren came calling in 2016, revealing why he decided to join and how he has turned the team around, helped by his most radical decision made early in his tenure.

Alex Albon has a second shot at Formula 1 with Williams this year, continuing his rocky journey from karting champion to the grand prix paddock.
In our latest My Big Break podcast, he tells Chris Medland how he rose through the ranks of F3 and F2, battling for race wins and championships with Charles Leclerc, George Russell and Lando Norris.
Albon recounts losing Red Bull backing after a tricky first year in Formula Renault, before picking himself up, graduating to GP3 and challenging Leclerc for the 2015 title. He explains why his friendship with George Russell resulted in a broken collarbone that wrecked his debut F2 season; the goodwill that brought him a second year in the championship; and the bold move — combined with a timely win — that brought him back into the Red Bull fold and into an F1 seat just before a switch to Formula E.
Ahead of the 2022 F1 season, the upbeat, grounded Albon shows since again why he’s one of racing’s most popular figures.

Formula 1 produced a season like no other in 2021: Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton battled for the championship from the start of the Bahrain Grand Prix to the very final lap in Abu Dhabi. To look over the excitement, the drama, the many controversies and the occasional mistake, Chris Medland is joined by Motor Sport F1 Editor Mark Hughes and Contributing Editor Damien Smith

As he prepares to join Andretti Autosport for the 2022 season, Grosjean reflects on the ‘big break’ moments that brought him to where he is today: his early F1 struggles, his championship-winning return to GP2, and what it took to become an IndyCar driver. As well as that crash.

Tim Schenken left Australia as national hillclimb champion at the age of 22 and returned 20 years later, having competed in F1, raced the Porsche 917/10 to victory at Zandvoort, Nürburgring and Hockenheim, and found himself detained in a Florida police station alongside Ronnie Peterson.

Now Clerk of the Course for the Australian Grand Prix (when it returns), Schenken focuses on his career with Porsche in the latest Motor Sport podcast from our Porsche’s winning formula series.

He describes his early sacrifices, including at a wet Spa where his tea couldn’t afford wet tyres; the “easy to drive” 917/10; and his endless disappointment at Le Mans.

There’s also time to reflect on the challenge of getting to F1 and that story from Daytona, 1972, where he and Peterson found themselves on the wrong side of the law, and without their passports, just hours before a race.