The biggest winners and losers from the first half of F1's 2022 season

• The 2022 F1 season is halfway through its schedule after 11 rounds.
• Max Verstappen and Red Bull hold the lead in the championship chases, but there are a lot of races left.

We are halfway through the 2022 Formula One season, which has already been filled with drama and surprises.

Max Verstappen is a heavy favorite to defend his driver championship, and Red Bull is in a solid position to win its first constructors championship since 2013, ending Mercedes' eight-year run on top. However, they are not alone among the winners, as there have been several strong performances and surprising results among the rest of the teams and drivers.

At the other end of the spectrum, several drivers and teams have been disappointing early in the season. Let's take a look.

The winners

Max Verstappen and Red Bull — After the second race of the season in Saudi Arabia, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said he would "rather fix a fast car than try and make a reliable, slow one fast," and they have done just that. After a slow start that saw Verstappen fail to finish two of the first three races, he and Red Bull have found their form. Verstappen has won five of the eight races since and finished on the podium two other times. His lead in the driver standings is now 38 points over Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.

Meanwhile, Red Bull's other driver, Sergio Perez, has also proven to be championship-caliber. He has one win and five P2s, and the team has seemingly overcome the team game in Spain that left Perez upset over being ordered to stand back as Verstappen won the race.

Charles Leclerc — After finishing seventh in the driver standings last season, Leclerc has proven he can be a legit title contender with three wins and two other podiums in the first 11 races.

He has been the fastest driver this season but has been undone by inconsistency and questionable decisions by Ferrari. His latest win in Austria shows that Verstappen doesn't have the title wrapped up yet, but a lot depends on his team getting its act together.

George Russell — Mercedes has clearly been grooming Russell to be Lewis Hamilton's heir apparent this year. However, as F1's most consistent driver this season, Russell is already ahead of his teammate in the standings and just behind Ferrari's Carlos Sainz.

Russell has finished in the top five of 10 of the first 11 races, despite Mercedes' struggles with the new cars. The team has made significant strides in recent rounds, and if they can find a little more, Russell will jump up into the Verstappen-Leclerc territory and start challenging for wins.

Haas — The team lost a driver and a lot of money just before the start of the season when they cut ties with Russian driver Nikita Mazepin and his oligarch father's company, which was their top sponsor. However, it was a blessing, as he was replaced by Kevin Magnussen, who has had a strong season despite not having any off-season F1 training.

One year after Haas had more retirements (8) than top-15 finishes (5) and points (0), Magnussen is 11th in the standings, and the team is seventh. And the team even appears to be taking another step up. After Mick Schumacher failed to score a point in the first nine races, he and K-Mag have both been in the points in the last two races.

Zhou Gyuanyu — It might seem strange that a driver 17th in the standings with just five points would be a "winner." However, he has been much better than his record would indicate. Zhou has only scored points in two races, but his total would likely be much more if not for four retirements, several of which were for mechanical problems out of his control. More importantly, Zhou came out of a terrifying crash at Silverstone essentially unscathed, which is as big a win as they come.

The losers

Ferrari — Despite being in the race for the driver and constructor championships, Ferrari's season still feels disappointing. Despite winning the pole in seven races this season, the team has only converted that into four wins.

While Ferrari had the fastest cars to start the season, they have been plagued by mechanical problems, with six retirements and Leclerc being forced to take a grid penalty earlier than most teams. In addition, the team has made several questionable decisions that have cost them. The most notable was in Monaco, where poor strategy cost the Scuderia the win.

Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton — Most teams and drivers have struggled with "porpoising" this season, but none more than Mercedes and Hamilton. Things got so bad, and Hamilton sounded so dismal that it led to early season speculation that he would retire from the sport entirely.

While they have seemingly fixed their bouncing problem in recent races, and Hamilton has finished on the podium in the last three, they are still behind Red Bull and Ferrari. Not good for a team that has won eight straight constructor titles.

Daniel Ricciardo — Things have gotten so bad for Danny Ricc that everybody already assumes he will be replaced at McLaren; it is just a question of when. While he has a contract for 2023, young drivers like Colton Herta, Alex Palou, and Pato O'Ward have all been linked to his seat.

Williams — Williams has not only been the slowest cars all season, but the team has also failed to show any improvement. Their 0.05 seconds gained in the first 10 races was only better than Alfa Romeo (+0.22s), who has actually gone backward, and well behind Aston Martin (-0.75s), who was at the back of the pack with Williams to start the season. The team has begun upgrading their cars, but it hasn't translated on the track yet.

Pierre Gasly — After finishing ninth in the standings in 2021 with nine top-6 finishes on Red Bull's B-team, Gasly has seemingly taken a step backward this season. At midseason, he is 13th with three retirements and just one finish better than eighth (P5 in Azerbaijan). In addition, while it seemed like he was destined for a move up in 2023 to another team, he is now staying with AlphaTauri for at least one more season.