Grand Prix Rejects

1. Kevin Magnussen. A massive 5th place for Haas, they must be so chuffed they brought him back.

2. Guanyu Zhou. Competitive all weekend and a points finish, pretty much the best debut he could have had.

1) Kevin Magnussen: The Haas looks a lot better this year and KMag is the kind of driver that can get competitive results out of it.

2) Zhou Guanyu: I didn't rate him in his junior career, coming third place in a two-horse race in his third and last season in Formula Two, but his racecraft seems pretty good for a rookie. Still think Piastri should have the seat, though.

1 Magnussen: He was on an extended holiday just a week ago. This is beyond incredible.
2 Haas & Alfa Romeo: I did not expect them to do so well.

HM: Guanyu Zhou. A point on his debut. Very nice start.

1 K-Mag. 5th place. More points than Haas have got in the last 2 years. Missed some testing and still does this.

2 Zhou Guanyu- Points on his debut and did some clean racing too. Good all round.

Hm- Lewis Hamiltons luck. It's back again.

(1) The Dane

(2) The Chinaman

1. Zhou Guanyu - never saw him scoring a point on his F1 debut.

2. Kevin Magnussen - Haas looks much better based on the small sample size but it was still a great comeback.

K-Mag: No explanation necessary

Alfa Romeo/Haas: The 2 biggest laughing stocks of last year have shown why they were right to look ahead to 2022

I'll just mention all of Magnussen, Bottas and Zhou. The former two for getting results I never expected from their teams, and the latter for getting a point on his debut (also something few would have predicted).

I would have to go for Bottas here, because having seen him tumble down the order at the start by losing 8 places, I had thought that was a sign that his race was done for - only to then see the surprise news that he finished that race in 6th. For me at least, that was certainly a "where did that come from" in terms of being surprised that Bottas did manage to recover so well.

1. Kevin Magnussen. The difference he made to the team is huge. A 5th place, compared to probably zero points from Mazepin, means Haas is fighting for best of the rest instead of end of the midfield.

2. Guanyu Zhou. Very solid debut, with the point as a cherry on top

1. K-Mag. Made Mick look very ordinary today. A very good qualifying session and mixing it up with the Mercedes all race.

2. Zhou. A healthy debut for someone cast aside as a pay driver.

HM: Alfa Romeo. Just a wonderful showing for a team that looked nowhere in pre-season testing. They should be happy with that points haul. 9 points in the first race compared to 13 in all of 2021.

K-Mag then Bottas for me. (Would have been the other way round if Bottas hadn't muffed the start, I'm sure he would have had P5 instead).

1. The lead Haas driver
2. Both Alfa Romeo drivers
3. The rookie driver

4. The race directors: they were very competent today, which normally would go under the radar, but compared to recent years, is a pleasant surprise. They made timely calls with the safety car when a race car was on fire, and there were no controversial penalty calls. And on their first weekend in their new roles. Good jobs all round.

For me it has to be Magnussen and Bottas. Two really feel-good narratives that make watching F1 a lot of fun on the occasoin

I'm going to echo what everyone else has already said and give nominations to Magnussen, Zhou and Bottas, but I'm also going to add an HM for F1 as a whole: I've found it very boring and processional for a lot of the last few years and nearly didn't bother watching this one at all.
In the end, I'm glad I did: it looks like the rule changes have done exaclty what they intended and let some close battles happen.

1. Zhou Guanyu - Showed those naysayers that he was there cause money. Great passing, no mistakes during the race (track limits in quali, pushed him down 4 spots), and got that point. Looks pretty good and I think he'll get better.

2. Kevin Magnussen - Great comeback from him and Haas. I would say Haas but Mick got conked and had a damaged car.

HM - Bottas - Out-qualified Russell, had a terrible start, and still finished P6. Also justifies AR picking him and makes Picci looking funny after he quit cause Gio was axed.

1) K.Magz: Shudders me to think how badly Haas handicapped themselves last year with that driver pairing given how well he did on zero testing.

2) Zhou Guanyu: He always looked more suited to F1's more mundane races, rather than the helter-skelter of F2, and hopefully he can stopped being treated as Mazepin 2.0 (until China invades Tajikistan or smth)

1. Magnussen
No explanation really needed. He was so much ahead of team-mate that I don't see the need to raise Haas here.
2. Zhou
Outqualified and outraced by Bottas, but a point in the first race is a good result.

K-Mag deserves this, defenitely.

Second i'd nominate Ferrari-powered cars in general. Getting 5 of your cars in the points is not bad, compared to last year.

1. Kevin Magnussen - Mega performance on a comeback. A reminder he was one of the greatest talents of the last decade. Hopefuly he can keep this hope (and he demolished Mick...).

2. Zhou Guanyu - Points on debut was a surprise from me (you can argue Alfa Romeo as a whole deserve IIDOTR, given Bottas' performance).

This race had to be K Mag absolutely, put Haas to Q3 and scored on his return.

And the results are in! Sorry for the delay in these articles, but they will be back on track very soon, I assure thee