Formula 1 has been perhaps more chaotic than ever before off-circuit in 2022, with the action continuing to take place even during the winter break.
This year has seen one of the craziest driver silly seasons in recent memory, with a whole heap of changes having taken place.
The 2022 edition of silly season was kickstarted by Fernando Alonso announcing that he’d be moving to Aston Martin to replace Sebastian Vettel, who announced at the Hungarian Grand Prix that he would retire from F1 at the end of the year.
What came next was the dramatic Oscar Piastri saga, after the 2021 F2 World Champion rejected Alonso’s seat at Alpine, in favour of moving to McLaren to replace Daniel Ricciardo.
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It then simmered down until the Japanese Grand Prix, where the Enstone-based team confirmed an all-French line-up for 2023, with Pierre Gasly moving from AlphaTauri to partner Esteban Ocon.
AlphaTauri then quickly announced that Mercedes reserve driver Nyck de Vries would be racing alongside Yuki Tsunoda next season, following an impressive debut at the Italian Grand Prix, after the Dutchman replaced Alex Albon.
Whilst all this was going on, Ricciardo and Nicholas Latifi both confirmed that they wouldn’t be on the grid next season, opening up a vacant seat at Williams which was taken by F2 driver Logan Sargeant, who’ll be stepping up next season.
That just left Haas, who decided against retaining Mick Schumacher in order to sign Nico Hulkenberg, who hasn’t raced in the championship full-time since 2019.
The action didn’t end there, as Red Bull announced after the season finale that Ricciardo would become their development driver for 2023, whilst Schumacher has been signed by Mercedes as their reserve for next season.
It truly has been a silly season; however, this week the team principals decided to kickstart their own edition, following Mattia Binotto’s resignation as Ferrari’s boss.
This week saw Alfa Romeo boss Frederic Vasseur announced as Binotto’s replacement at Ferrari, whilst McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl was confirmed as returning to Sauber to take on the Frenchman’s role of CEO of the Sauber Group.
The Woking-based side quickly announced that Seidl’s spot would be taken by the team’s executive director Andrea Stella, making for an in-house promotion.
All three are reportedly set to earn between £5.2-6.97m in their new roles next season, according to French business outlet Sportune.fr.
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This is nothing compared to the two big bosses in the sport, with Red Bull’s Christian Horner reportedly earning between £6.97-10.4m per year.
Even this is below Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, who is believed to earn a “minimum” salary of £13.9m a season.
There will still be yet further movement in the team principals’ silly season, as a team principal is still needed at Alfa Romeo and also at Williams, after Jost Capito departed the role at the Grove-based team.