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Formula 1, 2022

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#1 ·
MOTORSPORT.COM
Everything we know about the 2022 F1 season: drivers, cars, tracks & more

Dec 9, 2021, 12:37 PM
The 2022 Formula 1 season is almost upon us, but how much do you know about it? Find out all you need to know about the calendar, cars and more here.

Everything we know about the 2022 F1 season: drivers, cars, tracks & more

Once the 2021 Formula 1 season draws to a close, attention will immediately turn to preparations for 2022’s all-new rules.

F1 will receive one of its biggest technical overhauls for next season, with a seismic shift in the aerodynamic regulations, which should act as a soft reset for all of the teams in the championship.

The new regulations have been paired with a number of changes to the driver line-ups following a busy transfer market, with one rookie and one returnee making their way onto 2022’s grid.

There’s further changes afoot too, with a brand-new race on next year’s calendar and the expected return of some old favourites that were cut from the schedule amid the COVID-affected timetables in 2020 and 2021.

Here’s everything we know about 2022’s F1 season so far...

Formula 1 2022 driver line-up
There have been a number of high-profile changes to next season’s driver line-up, as Mercedes has changed its drivers for the first time since Nico Rosberg’s shock retirement from F1 at the end of 2016.

Lewis Hamilton remains at the team, but will be partnered with George Russell for 2022 as Mercedes saw fit to promote the British driver from Williams after an impressive three years with the Grove squad.

George Russell, Mercedes F1 W11

George Russell, Mercedes F1 W11

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Valtteri Bottas will hence leave the team, moving to Alfa Romeo in place of countryman Kimi Raikkonen – who retires from F1 20 years after making his debut with the team under its previous Sauber guise.

Raikkonen’s team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi will also depart and moves to the Dragon Penske Autosport team in Formula E to partner Sergio Sette Camara.
Guanyu Zhou steps up from Formula 2 to replace Giovinazzi to become the first Chinese driver to make his full grand prix debut. He will race with the number 24.

In Russell’s place at Williams, former Red Bull driver Alexander Albon moves to the squad after a year on the sidelines, linking up with former DAMS F2 team-mate Nicholas Latifi.

Elsewhere on the grid, the line-ups remain the same, with Sergio Perez earning a contract extension with Red Bull to continue to partner Max Verstappen.

Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr continue at Ferrari, as Lando Norris signed a long-term contract extension to remain at McLaren with Daniel Ricciardo.

Fernando Alonso triggered an option in his contract to remain with Alpine, as the team also extended Esteban Ocon’s stay at the team. Oscar Piastri will join as the team’s official reserve following his successful maiden F2 campaign.

Pierre Gasly remains at AlphaTauri alongside Yuki Tsunoda, who admitted he was surprised to be retained by the team, as Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll continue at Aston Martin for a second season together.

Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin remain at Haas following the team’s point-less season in 2021.

2022 Formula 1 car launch dates
The cars of Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF21, and Sebastian Vettel, Aston Martin AMR21

The cars of Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF21, and Sebastian Vettel, Aston Martin AMR21
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
No teams have confirmed when they’ll be launching their cars yet, however with pre-season testing starting on 23-25 February they’ll need to be launched before that. As a rough guide, in 2021 McLaren was the first team to unveil its new car on 15 February with AlphaTauri and Alfa Romeo following suit on the 19 and 22 February respectively.

Ferrari was the last team to launch its 2021 car, and did so just two days before pre-season testing started (launching on 10 March before testing on the 12th).

2022 Formula 1 car – stats, design and speed
The largest difference to the 2022 F1 aerodynamics package is the return to a ground-effect formula. Ground-effect underbody tunnels have not been permitted in Formula 1 since 1982, but the calls for their reintroduction have become rather loud in recent years.

F1 has sought to reduce the current reliance on wings for downforce, which have been blamed for the "dirty air" that has made close-quarters racing difficult in modern times, which meant the idea of a return to ground effects was more attractive to the rulemakers.

By creating a very pronounced entry at the front of the floor, the air moves through two Venturi tunnels. As the air flows under the car, it's squeezed through the point closest to the ground, developing an extreme low-pressure area, creating a large amount of suction underneath. This means the floor is relied on more for downforce, and reduces the wake produced by various bodywork components.

Ronnie Peterson, Lotus 78

Ronnie Peterson, Lotus 78
Photo by: David Phipps
Unlike the old-school ground effects, the car won't have sliding skirts, and instead has a range of fins underneath to minimise any disturbance. To make sure each team uses the floor as it should, a standard tea-tray will be developed to attach to the front of the floor.

The tyres will change, as F1 moves to an 18-inch rim for 2022.

There's a lot of change to the amount of bodywork for the next era of F1 cars. In 2022, the massively complex bargeboards will be completely removed. In their place comes a new breed of "wheel bodywork", which intends to minimise the effects of the wake produced by the wheels as they rotate. Wheel covers return, and the front wheels now have a deflector over the top to assist with this.

For the time being, DRS remains, but this can be revisited if the new cars produce the desired on-track product.

Numbers look good so far, and F1 and the FIA have noticed that, when one car length behind another competitor, the following car now has around 86% of its usual downforce, compared to the 55% it currently experiences.

To help limit the R&D costs, gearboxes will be frozen from 2022 to the end of 2025. In that time, there can only be one upgrade to the gearbox specification.

Suspension regulations now only permit springs and dampers, meaning that using solely torsion bars will no longer be allowed. The heave springs, or inerters, will also be banned to simplify the suspension systems. Suspension uprights must now be solely included within the wheel assembly, meaning no external mounting points may be permitted.

The 2022 Formula 1 car launch event on the Silverstone grid. Front wing detail

The 2022 Formula 1 car launch event on the Silverstone grid. Front wing detail
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
The front wing has been redefined, and can now be made up of a maximum of four elements overall. Most crucially, the endplates now look very different, and are produced with a smooth blend from the front wing elements to a single-piece endplate, upturned like an aeroplane's wing. The nose also attaches directly to the wing, much like it used to before the middle of the 1990s.

The rear wing has been redesigned too, and can almost be described as endplate-less. Instead, it loops around into a beam-wing mounting, aiming to slash the strength of the vortices produced at the rear of the car - which is blamed for cars being unable to follow each other.

Drivers expect the 2022 cars to be more “on edge” as a result, while the offset between 2021 and 2022 laptimes is anticipated to be smaller than initially expected.

2022 Formula 1 calendar
Date Grand Prix Venue
20 March Bahrain Sakhir
27 March Saudi Arabia Jeddah
10 April Australia Albert Park
24 April Emilia Romagna Imola
8 May Miami Miami Gardens
22 May Spain Barcelona
29 May Monaco Monte-Carlo
12 June Azerbaijan Baku
19 June Canada Montreal
3 July Britain Silverstone
10 July Austria Red Bull Ring
24 July France Paul Ricard
31 July Hungary Hungaroring
28 August Belgium Spa-Francorchamps
4 September Netherlands Zandvoort
11 September Italy Monza
25 September Russia Sochi
2 October Singapore Marina Bay
9 October Japan Suzuka
23 October United States Circuit of the Americas
30 October Mexico City Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez
13 November Sao Paulo Interlagos
20 November Abu Dhabi Yas Marina
Formula 1 will host its largest-ever calendar in 2022, with 23 races scheduled for next year.

The first-ever Miami Grand Prix will take place at the start of May, on a 3.36-mile street circuit around the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens.

There are also provisional returns for the Australian, Canadian, Singapore and Japanese grands prix, following their cancellation from the previous two seasons owing to the effects of COVID-related travel restrictions.

Although Albert Park returns to the calendar, the Bahrain Grand Prix will take the Melbourne circuit’s usual slot as the first race of the season, with a week’s gap to the second round on the Jeddah Corniche Circuit before Australia’s return.

Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes AMG W10, leads Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1 W10, Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari SF90, Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF90, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB15, and the rest of the field at the start

Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes AMG W10, leads Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1 W10, Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari SF90, Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF90, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB15, and the rest of the field at the start
Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images

Imola hosts the first European race of the season, retaining the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix title, before the first race in Miami – one of two contests in the USA.

The European season will then begin, pausing for races in Azerbaijan and Canada, before the final set of flyaways begin in September, starting in Russia prior to the first events in Singapore and Japan since 2019.

The season will close out in Abu Dhabi at the end of November, following F1’s desire to compress the calendar into a shorter timeframe.

China was not listed on the 2022 calendar despite holding a contract to do so, while Qatar will skip 2022 ahead of its hosting of the FIFA World Cup in the winter.
When is pre-season testing?
Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren MCL35M

Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren MCL35M
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Pre-season testing is expected to take place at two venues, with the first three days being run at the Barcelona circuit from the 23-25 February, with Bahrain hosting the second block of running from the 11-13 March ahead of the grand prix. This will be the first opportunity to see the 2022 cars in action, although teams will naturally keep their cards close to their chest.

2022 Formula 1 rule changes
In addition to the technical regulations, F1 is introducing a number of changes to the windtunnel and CFD testing structure that cuts the amount of testing allowed depending on a team’s championship placing in 2021.

The base figures supplied allow a team within one aerodynamic testing period (ATP, of which there are six in a season) 320 windtunnel runs, 80 hours of wind-on time (defined as when the air moves more than 15m/s), with teams allowed to spend a total of 400 hours within the windtunnel.

The percentage values apply depending on where each team finishes. Finishing first in the constructors’ standings rewards a team a multiplier of 70%, meaning a team’s time in the windtunnel is handicapped, and finishing 10th comes with a 115% multiplier, meaning they get more time available. CFD terms work on the same basis.
There are also more sprint races expected for the 2022 season, with F1 planning to expand to six races from the three in 2021. Bahrain, Imola, Montreal, Red Bull Ring, Zandvoort and Interlagos are expected to be the nominated venues.

Furthermore, the cost cap is expected to drop in 2022 to $140m for the year, down from the $145m allowed in 2021.
 
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7
#2 ·

THE-RACE
KEY DETAILS ABOUT F1’S NEXT-GENERATION ENGINE REVEALED

By Scott Mitchell
The FIA has confirmed that the next-generation Formula 1 engine in 2026 will lose the MGU-H but increase electrical power output to 350kW.

F1 and its governing body have been seeking to finalise details about the next-gen engine and it was understood today’s meeting of the World Motor Sport Council was the target to get the regulations in place.

Though that has not happened the FIA has released a small number of key details about the new power unit, the rules for which have been specifically framed to try to attract the Volkswagen Group to commit to an engine programme with Porsche or Audi.
As previously reported by The Race, the 1.6-litre engines will remain but will lose the complex MGU-H component from the hybrid system.

The MGU-H, which converts wasted heat to electrical energy and is effectively a sophisticated anti-lag system for the turbocharger, is a cutting-edge piece of technology within the hybrid engines but has little-to-know road relevance.

Its loss is being replaced by increased power from the MGU-K to up the electrical power to 350kW (around 469bhp).

A power unit cost cap will also be introduced, as has been expected, although the level has not been officially set.
These details are part of the plan to achieve four key objectives outlined by the FIA including significant cost reduction and making it possible for newcomers to join “at a competitive level”.
That is significant because there has been a row between new and current manufacturers over whether the likes of Porsche or Audi and Red Bull’s new Powertrains division should be entitled to budget and dyno concessions to help develop their 2026 engines.

A decision from the VW Group on whether a Porsche or Audi engine project will happen – and whether it will be alongside Red Bull or as a standalone initiative – is expected this month.
The other two objectives are a “power environmental message” based on switching to “100% sustainable fuel” as well as more electrical power, and a desire to “protect the show” with a “powerful and high-revving power unit, car performance, sound, drivers’ ability to race, and avoiding excessive differentiation”.

However, it will be some time before the new power unit regulations are developed fully as a detailed document is not expected to be submitted to the WMSC until early 2022.
 
#4 ·
News about Volkswagen entering F1
Domenicali also hints at a potential entry of Volkswagen into the premier class. He sees Volkswagen’s potential entry into motorsport as a door opener for the return of a German Grand Prix. He praises the commitment of Mercedes, who have won eight consecutive constructors’ titles, “but anything that increases the interest of the Germans is welcome.
“I think we have an important month ahead of us in terms of the Volkswagen Group’s decision.”
Domenicali is pleased with the German group’s involvement in the regulations for 2026 and hopes a decision on the entry will be made soon.
 
#5 ·
News about Volkswagen entering F1
Domenicali also hints at a potential entry of Volkswagen into the premier class. He sees Volkswagen’s potential entry into motorsport as a door opener for the return of a German Grand Prix. He praises the commitment of Mercedes, who have won eight consecutive constructors’ titles, “but anything that increases the interest of the Germans is welcome.

Domenicali is pleased with the German group’s involvement in the regulations for 2026 and hopes a decision on the entry will be made soon.
i thought the decision was supposed to be buy dec 15. Why is it taking so long
 
#8 ·
I'm right there, too

Yep. Why hasn't Masi gone yet? That he hasn't resigned, or publicly apologised, tells you a lot about him as a person.

I hope that he's apologised to Toto for being so rude and sarcastic, when he was clearly in the wrong.
 
#10 ·
As someone interested in the cars and the racing, it's been getting steadily harder to continue watching F1. Through the loss of the sound, the rise of Taylor Swift at the races, the continued favour that is bestowed on the red wankers, etc, the only thing that's really kept me watching is Lewis. It was clear from the start that he was something special, and it didn't take many years for me to conclude that he was the best I'd ever seen (and I've been following/watching for as long as I can remember). If he goes, it'll be hard for me to stay interested after this latest debacle, which confirms all my worst fears about the way the whole circus is run.
 
#11 ·
ESPN
Why F1 hopes its new-look 2022 car is a game changer

By Laurence Edmondson F1 Editor

New year, new rules, new look. After one of the most exciting seasons in its history, Formula One is due to make one of the biggest regulatory shakeups for decades.

Why change the regulations?
The overhaul of Formula One's technical regulations for 2022 is so extensive that it's easier to list the parts of the car that aren't changing than the parts that are. Having said that, the cars that line up on the grid for the first race in March will still be instantly recognisable as Formula One machines, although the shapes and philosophies that make up the designs will be a significant departure from the ones that crossed the line at the final race in Abu Dhabi last year.
When Formula One and the FIA, racing's governing body, first set out to create the new set of regulations in 2017, there was one main aim: improve wheel-to-wheel racing. Factors such as aesthetics and cost were also part of the equation, but the overarching purpose of every article in the 2022 technical regulations is to increase the chances of overtaking.
Tire Wheel Car Vehicle Automotive tire


A model 2022 car, unveiled by Formula One ahead of last year's British Grand Prix. Race Service/Formula 1 via Getty Images

The problem F1 was trying to overcome was well known from the get-go. For years, drivers complained about a loss of downforce while following another car, making it difficult to plan and execute an overtaking move as they lost cornering performance the closer they got to the car in front.

The reason for the problem was also understood: the aerodynamic surfaces of a Formula One car are designed to offer as much downforce as possible as air passes over them, but the design process to reach those surfaces assumes the flow of air is clean and constant. As soon as another car runs in front, it disrupts the flow of air over those aerodynamic surfaces and makes them less effective, reducing the cornering performance of the car.

F1's studies found that a typical car built to last year's regulations would only retain 53 percent of its peak downforce once it is running within a car's length of a rival. This loss of downforce makes it almost impossible for cars to race closely through high-speed corners where downforce is essential to performance, significantly reducing the chances of overtaking at certain tracks.

The new regulations are written to tackle this problem at the cause, and simulations of the new designs suggest cars will be able to retain as much as 82 percent of their downforce while following within a car length of a rival. Whether that 82 percent figure is accurate once teams have tweaked every last surface of the car to work to their advantage remains to be seen, but it's hard to argue with the theory behind the rule change.

What's changing?
Two key philosophies have driven the change in regulations; the first is to make the car less susceptible to losing downforce in the dirty air of the car in front and the second is to ensure the design creates less dirty air in the first place.

The biggest change in that regard is to ensure a smaller proportion of downforce is created by the upper surfaces of the car (which generate the turbulent air on the lead car and are impacted by the turbulent air on the chasing car) by allowing for more downforce to be generated by the underfloor of the car. With the 2022 car this is done by making better use of a phenomenon known as ground effect.

This idea of using the underside of the car to create significant amounts of downforce is nothing new. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, F1 teams started to better understand the potential of ground effect aerodynamics, leading to a sudden increase in cornering performance. Essentially, the length of the car was treated as an upside-down aeroplane wing with the lower surface profiled to generate low air pressure under the car and suck it to the track.

In order to do this, air was channelled into tunnels running the length of the floor of the car that started off wide, restricted in size midway through and then opened again at the rear. The shape of the tunnel increased the speed of the air running under the car, creating low pressure at the most pinched part of the tunnel that quite literally sucked the car to the track surface.

The concept was helped by sliding "skirts" on the side of the car to seal off the tunnels, but occasional failures in the designs led to devastating mid-corner losses of downforce that ultimately led to ground effect cars being banned on safety grounds at the end of 1982. Flat floors were mandated to limit the downforce created by the underside of the car, but the understanding of ground effects never went away. Instead, teams came up with different ways of accelerating the flow of air under the car to generate downforce from the floor.

In recent years, the front wing and barge boards have been designed to energise the flow of air under the car and seal it off to create the desired area of low pressure. Much like the sliding skirts on the cars from the 1980s, vortices of air were generated by the inner sections of the front wing elements to seal off the flow of air under the car and maximise the ground effect from the flat floor. The only problem with this idea is that those vortices are dependent on a clean, steady flow of air to the front wing, which, as we know, can be disrupted when following another car.

What's more, with a flat floor the low pressure under the car could easily be disrupted by the wake coming off the spinning front tyres. The most effective way of protecting against this was to use the outer tips of the front wing to create additional vortices of air that are so powerful they force the turbulent air coming off the wheels away from the car, resulting in improved efficiency of the floor but a very messy wake of turbulent air behind, adding to the problems for the following car. By permitting underfloor tunnels in 2022, the idea is that the cars will not only benefit from the downforce offered by the ground effect, but also a front wing that is more focused on creating outright downforce rather than powerful vortices.

The rules around the shape of the nose and front wing, with the front wing flaps extending as one continuous curve from their tips to the nose itself, have been written with that in mind and to ensure it plays less of a role in the effectiveness of the floor. If more of the front wing is devoted to generating downforce over creating vortices to seal the floor, it should make the entire design less sensitive to running in another car's wake.

Little winglets have been added above the front wheels to help manage the disruptive air flow created by the tyres, while wheel covers are now mandated to stop engineers manipulating airflow through the wheels themselves, further tidying up the wake of the cars. The rear wing, too, has been rounded off, again with the intention of minimising the disruptive wake to the car behind, while simultaneously sending any turbulent air high up and over the following car rather than directly at it.

Automotive design Automotive lighting Gadget Computer hardware Gas

The rear wing has been rounded off to help F1 reduce the disruptive wake to the car behind. Race Service/Formula 1 via Getty Images
Automotive lighting Toy Automotive design Motor vehicle Car


The 2022 car features new-look front wings. Race Service/Formula 1 via Getty Images
Will it make F1 more exciting?
While the theory behind the new regulations is sound, F1 rule changes have a history of unintended consequences. In 2009 a half-baked study into improving overtaking led to a rule change that resulted in one of the most dominant starts to a season by any single team, as Brawn GP made use of a loophole in the diffuser regulations to help win six of the first seven races. What's more, there was little evidence that wheel-to-wheel racing actually improved in 2009 as a result of the rule changes.

The 2022 rules are far more comprehensive and prescriptive than 2009, meaning there is less potential for finding a loophole and a better chance of improving on track action, but some truths of motor racing cannot be escaped. The cars will still rely heavily on aerodynamics for performance and that means the following car will still be at a disadvantage. It may be easier to follow another car, but we are not about to see NASCAR-style paint swapping in the middle of high-speed corners.

One indicator that F1 isn't entirely convinced it has found the perfect answer is its decision to leave the Drag Reduction System (DRS) in the regulations to aid overtaking. Often seen as artificial, the DRS has been a key factor in allowing drivers to race one another in recent years and removing it completely could lead to less overtaking in 2022 rather than more. But one of the positives about the DRS is that it can be "tuned" to suit the cars and circuits, meaning that if overtaking becomes too easy, DRS zones can be shortened or simply removed over time.

On the plus side, with DRS still in place and the new car designs helping matters, it's impossible to imagine a situation where the 2022 rules make things worse. The last generation of cars made their debut in 2017 with no aim other than to knock 5.5 seconds off the lap times seen in 2015. That created some of the most impressive F1 cars in history in terms of performance, but very little thought was given to the impact it would have on overtaking. And when you consider how good some of the racing was in 2021, it's thrilling to think how much better it might be in 2022 - assuming the cars are still evenly matched.

Of course, the other lesson from 2009 is one team gaining a significant advantage by finding a loophole. Another Brawn GP situation, in which one team found a significant performance gain, can't be ruled out but most teams have indicated that the rules are too tightly defined to allow for a game-changing loophole. Standard parts and designs, such as the "t-tray" at the front of the floor, should mean the intention of the rules are followed, although the sheer number of creative minds looking to exploit the regulations at each team far outweigh the number at the FIA who wrote them.

Perhaps the biggest factor in ensuring racing is competitive between teams over the coming years will not be written in the technical regulations but in the introduction of the budget cap last year. The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the delay in the new regulations from 2021 to 2022 but plans for a budget cap in 2021 were stuck to, meaning a significant proportion of the development of the 2022 cars was limited by the $145 million cap. While teams with the best resources and facilities at their factories will likely get more bang for their buck, the days of spending your way to success should be a thing of the past as the cap gets tighter year on year.

Whom will the new rules suit the most?
One of the great things about the new regulations is that, at this stage, no-one knows. It's incredibly unlikely that Williams, Haas or Alfa Romeo will find themselves on pole position at the opening race, but picking between the top teams is tough.

To help level the playing field, F1 also introduced a sliding scale for aerodynamic development time last year, meaning the lower a team was in the championship, the more wind tunnel and CFD development potential it had for the following year. Based on championship finishing positions in 2020, it means Ferrari, which finished sixth, had significantly more development time than the likes of Red Bull and Mercedes at the start of last year before the levels were reset midway through the season based on each team's championship position on June 30. Of course, it's how you use the wind tunnel time and CFD data that counts, but it's another factor that could provide some surprises this year and help Ferrari return to the front.
Add to that the balancing act Red Bull and Mercedes faced in developing their 2022 cars with fighting for the 2021 championship and we could see another levelling factor at the start of the season. Mercedes said it turned off the development taps on last year's W12 around May to focus on 2022, which is why Lewis Hamilton had to make do with his last car update at the British Grand Prix in July, but Red Bull appeared to devote more of its resources towards ensuring Max Verstappen came out on top. While Red Bull will take some comfort in knowing that development was well spent in securing the drivers' championship, it will be interesting to see if it starts the 2022 season slightly lower on its development curve as a result.

Meanwhile, Alpine, McLaren and Aston Martin have all undergone or are still undergoing major investment drives at their factories, which have probably come too late to offer a significant advantage for 2022, but could be critical in future success if their new cars are innovative enough to make a leap up the grid this year. All three teams have ambitions of fighting for championships in the coming years and making a strong start under the new rules will be absolutely crucial.

However, not all 10 teams can get it right and regularly challenge for podiums in 2022 so, despite the optimism at this time of year, for every winner under the new regulations there will almost certainly be a loser.
Why F1 hopes its new-look 2022 car is a game changer
 

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#12 ·
MOTORSPORT
Max Verstappen sends F1 car design in the wrong direction — MPH

JANUARY 7TH 2022
By MARK HUGHES

Having a top-level driver like Max Verstappen can be a double-edged sword, such as in 2020 when the Dutchman's skill masked the dead-end development path that Red Bull was taking, writes Mark Hughes
The equation between driver and car and car performance is a complex one. At F1 level the drivers are close enough in their basic speed that it’s often a fallacy to say driver A is faster than driver B. In one car he might be, in another he might be slower. It depends upon how the traits of a car (or the way it works its tyres) dovetails with the way the driver is physiologically wired up. A big part of the job of an engineering team is in understanding how what the driver is telling them translates to what the car is doing to give the driver those sensations, good or bad.

It can be that the car is not doing what the driver needs it to do in order to fully exploit a particular skill and if the team could just get it to do that, the driver will be able to extract extra performance by unleashing that skill from within. The gain will be bigger than any simulation can account for because there is a human performance element to it. Alternatively, it can be that the driver is so skilled at adapting their technique around what is a shortcoming of the car, they do not recognise it as a shortcoming.

One of the most striking examples of this latter phenomenon was the 2020 Red Bull, as explained by the team’s technical chief Pierre Wache.

“We started that year not far off Mercedes, then we had a massive down in the middle of the season before coming up again. Clearly we went in the wrong direction and we recovered. That’s where we missed something in our analysis in terms of development direction. The car had a characteristic which Max [Verstappen] liked and which allowed him to go faster and so as we went further down this path his lap times would improve. But it brought with it some instability on entry and eventually you come to a point where that is the limiting factor and you cannot go any faster. It also made the car very difficult for the other drivers.”

Red Bull of Max Verstappen cornering at the 2020 Eifel Grand Prix

Wolfgang/Rattay images
2020 Red Bull could be rotated easily – at the price of rear stability

That car, the RB16, was the first needle-nosed Red Bull after years of wide nose cars. It also had a front wing design which greatly increased its effectiveness once the wheels were steered past a certain point, clearing the area behind the outboard ends of the wing. So at high-steering – ie low-speed – corners, there would be a big move forward of the aero balance. Which is great for getting the car rotated early into the turn, but not great if it is so sudden it induces instability at the rear through not loading up the rear tyres progressively enough and taking them straight past their optimum slip angle. If the driver is as super-skilled as Verstappen that optimum trade-off is way further towards instability than with an ordinary driver – ie he will still be getting faster lap times as that trait is further developed long past the point where the other driver has become slower than before.
“We identified that,” explained Wache, “and also identified what the driver could actually use as performance. We had some characteristics that made it very difficult to extract the theoretical performance. We identified this after mid-season [2020]. This characteristic was the main limitation of the car and we moved away from it. At the end of that season we could confirm this and that gave us a good foundation for ’21.”

It meant that the front of the car could no longer be loaded up quite as hard as before and that brought certain limitations with the ’21 car, but in the interests of an overall better balance. There were tracks last year – Hungaroring, Istanbul Park – where the car just had too much rear grip for the front and the team had to compromise on rear wing level, surrendering total downforce just to get a driveable balance. But overall it was a much more effective car that the very edgy 2020 RB16.

But the development route to that trait was a fascinating one in how it illustrated the weave between driver and team. “It’s ironic that in 2020 Max’s talent was a contributory cause to the problem we had. He has an ability to control this sort of instability that would be impossible for some others. We know that sometimes, making a car on the edge in this way can create a quicker car – and you don’t realise you went in the wrong direction because you are still extracting more lap time from the car. But you don’t realise at first it’s only because he has so much talent. So you keep going in this direction but you go too far and it takes you a few months to come back from, that and realise you’d gone in the wrong direction.

“The system is so big that to rethink the aero surfaces of the car and remake them, it was a long and painful process. It’s a big gain for Max that he can set a car up with some rear instability and extract more performance from a given car. But if we are giving him a car that is not stable enough, we are limiting the potential of the car and his talent blinded us a little to what was happening.”

Variations of these processes are ongoing up and down the pitlane at every team all the time.
 
#15 ·

One senior source told BBC Sport that Mercedes had dropped their appeal against the results of the race after agreeing a quid pro quo with the FIA.

This deal was said to be that Masi and FIA head of single-seater technical matters Nikolas Tombazis would no longer be in their positions for the 2022 season.

Mercedes deny that any such deal was reached, and insist that they dropped their appeal after receiving assurances only that the issue would be treated seriously and appropriate action would be taken by the FIA.
I'm not sure that they can show that they've taken the issue seriously without firing Masi, and more. Frankly, the FIA needed to take action very quickly after the race, but have had to be pulled, screaming and kicking, into even accepting that there's a problem.
 
#16 ·


I'm not sure that they can show that they've taken the issue seriously without firing Masi, and more. Frankly, the FIA needed to take action very quickly after the race, but have had to be pulled, screaming and kicking, into even accepting that there's a problem.
Right. Whatever the other steps are, step 1 is fire Masi.
 
#20 ·
How McLaren Is on Track to Continue Climb in F1 Constructors' Championship
Drivers Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo ready to push McLaren to the next level in Formula 1.

BY PHILLIP HORTON
Jan 11, 2022
McLaren’s 2021 season was its best in terms of points (275) since 2012, the last year in which it was a title contender.

From 2020 to 2021, McLaren slipped in the Formula 1 Constructors' standings from third to fourth, falling behind Ferrari, but crucially brought to a close a win drought that had extended to 170 races. Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris earned a well-earned 1-2 in Italy, while one race later in Russia, Norris was leading from the pole position until rain derailed his prospects.

There were hurdles along the way.

McLaren had to deal with its reunion with Mercedes. It was an alliance planned to coincide with the overhauled technical regulations. But when these were postponed by a year, McLaren instead had to adapt the existing package that had initially been designed for a Renault engine. McLaren subsequently spent its allocated development tokens on housing Mercedes’ power unit rather than solely tackling potential chassis weaknesses.

McLaren’s 2021 also came off the back of having to navigate choppy financial waters that were accentuated by the pandemic’s impact on the wider McLaren Group; a December 2020 deal with US-based investment firm MSP Sports Capital steadied the ship and ensures that for 2022 McLaren is in a much healthier position, able to financially compete up to the budget cap of $142 million.

McLaren is now almost unrecognizable from the team that Zak Brown joined as CEO prior to 2017. And that appears to be a good thing, as the team looks ready to take the next step in the F1 Constructors' Championship standings.
2021 F1 Constructors' Championship Leaders
Mercedes 613.5 (9 wins)
Red Bull 585.5 (11)
Ferrari 323.5 (0)
McLaren 275.5 (1)
Alpine 155 (1)
Under Brown, McLaren has overhauled its driver lineup, tying down long-term protégé Norris and eight-time winner Ricciardo, recruited Andreas Seidl as team principal and James Key as technical director (both arrived in early 2019) and taken on engines from Mercedes, following a spell with Renault, which came after the Honda debacle.

McLaren’s papaya-and-blue livery, a nod to its heritage, remains popular among its fanbase, as do bold marketing schemes such the one-off Gulf-inspired scheme it sported in Monaco.

“We’re definitely on track, in every aspect,” says Brown. “We’ve got all the people in place, they’re very much committed and signed up to the long term: drivers, team bosses, engineers. I’m really happy with our people, which is important.”
The financial challenges 2020 hurled in its direction “have all been resolved,” Brown says, and projects are ongoing to facilitate McLaren’s ongoing recovery. It introduced a new Engineering Center at Europe-based Grands Prix in 2021, having also brought a new more sustainable hospitality suite dubbed ‘Team Hub’, but of more importance is a state-of-the-art simulator and wind tunnel that are under construction, with a view to 2024.
“The wind tunnel will be another 18 months,” Brown concedes. “(That is) when we develop the ‘24 car, so we’ll make the best with what we have but it’ll be until ‘24 that we can say we have everything we need.

“In ‘21 we wanted to close the gap to the front and we’ve done that. We’ve scored more points per race than ‘20, more podiums, got the 1-2 at Monza, pole in Russia.”
McLaren hit its preseason targets, bar retaining its 2020 championship position, prompting Brown to describe the year as “successful” in its journey “to get back to hopefully competing for the world championship in a few years’ time.”
While Brown is responsible for McLaren Racing’s activities, responsibility for Formula 1 rests with Seidl, Key and executive director of racing Andrea Stella.

“We made a big step forward again with the car in terms of getting closer with the lap times in quali and the race to Mercedes and Red Bull,” said Seidl on McLaren’s 2021 season, his third at the helm. We were even in a position to occasionally challenge them at the tracks which were suiting our car.”

Improving McLaren beyond merely the performance of its car has been a quest for Seidl, who previously guided Porsche’s ultra-successful sports car program.

“In terms of reliability, we had a very good season,” he says. “In terms of operational strength at the track we had a very good season again, we made good steps forward in terms of consistency and speed of the pit stops. Simply the way we worked together as a team was clearly the next step again which is the most important thing for me to see because we made a major reset to the team two years ago in terms of organization, culture and we created stability which hasn’t been there before at McLaren for several years.
“We have a great team environment, we have all the talents in place that we need to make the next steps. We simply need time. We are ambitious, of course, but at the same time, we need time to see the results of that. We just need to keep going that way and just need to get our infrastructure in place in the next two years and then I am very optimistic that we can [make] these next steps.”

The message from Brown and Seidl is clear; while 2022 represents a technical reset, and an opportunity for all teams, McLaren is still developing as an organization.

McLaren may have returned to the top step of the podium, with Brown relishing the Ricciardo-inspired "shoey" on a glorious day at Monza, but at year’s end it was fourth-best of the 10 teams. There was misfortune in the closing events of the campaign, meaning results were not fully reflective of the MCL35M’s speed and its pursuit of Ferrari’s third was hindered, but at some events McLaren was found lacking. The nadir was the Dutch round at Zandvoort, where it had only the seventh-fastest car, and mustered just a solitary point.
“If you look at the season as a whole we can be pleased,” says tech chief Key. “We know that Ferrari are fierce opposition, we are definitely still playing catch up in many ways to them as a team. We are still quite young as an organization; we’ve got investments coming to try and catch up to be state of the art.”
McLaren has made progress in recent years but, as it prepares for the 2022 reset, certain traits have still limited the team on occasion.

“What we are missing is we are trying to—we did work on this 2020 and 2021—generate that performance in the low speed and we know what we aren’t quite there yet,” Key says. “That’s some of the issues. The car isn’t quite robust as it is in high-speed in the low-speed corners. What we found last year [in ‘20] is that we had similar traits, we had it in ‘19 as well.

“It isn’t something that is fixable with a silver bullet where you just switch it and suddenly it’s great. It takes a while to get them to work. You can make it work quicker but lose your strengths in other areas and so on. I think basically that was the battle we were up against. It’s why we knew Zandvoort would be difficult: long, low-speed corners where the grip level in low speed is critical. We know it’s a weakness of our car and equally how we knew Monza would be strong because almost everything is high-speed, and the low-speed [corners] are quick changes of direction, short-duration corners so it all backs up for us.”

The new 2022 regulations nevertheless give McLaren the opportunity to adopt new philosophies.

“I think for next year (2022), it’s such a different car, the choices naturally are quite different,” he says. “We’ve been very careful not to just grab the easy performance there and find ourselves in a situation which leaves us with obvious strengths and weaknesses again.

“I suppose the good thing is that we know why our strengths exist, I think we certainly want to hang onto that sort of set of characteristics. With a blank sheet of paper, you can obviously attack it in multiple different ways. I think we’ve concentrated on more trying to have a more balanced car through various different conditions than we’d have had now. That’s what we’d have wanted to do had the regs stayed the same. It’s exactly the same process but we are just doing it with a difference in regulation.”
McLaren will enter 2022 with the same driver lineup of Ricciardo and Norris. Ricciardo’s signing was a coup for McLaren, following his prior rejection of the team in 2018, but he was firmly shaded by Norris. Ricciardo, though, was the one to claim the popular victory. He took time marrying his approach to the precise style required to extract the most from McLaren’s package, while Norris was more accustomed to the MCL35M’s needs. It is a driver pairing that will be intriguing to track through 2022, with Norris chasing a first victory to bolster his rising status, while Ricciardo cannot afford a repeat of his largely mediocre season.

“I think Lando in his third year in Formula 1, he has developed in terms of pure speed,” says Stella.
“I am confident to say in terms of pure speed he was one of the strongest drivers on the grid and I think this is true in all conditions.
“With Lando we also worked on improving the race craft so the capacity to score points (was there) and I think this, in a way, is proven by the facts. Where I see the opportunity with Lando is on consolidating these very, very high standards that he has achieved every single session.
“On Daniel’s front, I think the progress through the season has been tangible. We know that there’s more to come with Daniel. In a way, we have a development plan still and I am looking forward to seeing what we will be able to do with Daniel. I am very optimistic from this point of view. Let me just say working with him is a real pleasure. I think he creates a really nice atmosphere in the team which is a good foundation for technical and driving development.”
McLaren has stern opposition, with Mercedes chasing a ninth successive title, Red Bull 2021’s winningest team, and Ferrari aspiring to stake its rightful place among the front-runners. But the pieces of the puzzle are gradually slotting together in McLaren’s plans to end a title drought that is now into its third decade.
 
#25 ·
Following the decision of the World Motor Sport Council in Paris on 15 December 2021, the FIA administration, under the leadership of Mohammed Ben Sulayem, has started the detailed analysis of the events of the last Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The FIA President launched a consultation with all F1 teams on various issues, including this one.
On January 19, an item on the agenda of the Sporting Advisory Committee will be dedicated to the use of the Safety Car.
The following stage will be a shared discussion with all F1 drivers.
The outcome of the detailed analysis will be presented to the F1 Commission in February and final decisions will be announced at the World Motor Sport Council in Bahrain on 18 March.
FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem has asked Secretary General Sport and recently appointed Single-Seater Director Peter Bayer for proposals to review and optimize the organization of the FIA F1 structure for the 2022 season.
 
#28 ·
RacingNews365.com

Revealed: All you need to know about Porsche and Audi entering F1

By Dieter Rencken

Volkswagen Group brands Porsche and Audi have been heavily linked with F1 entries in recent months. In the first of his in-depth columns for RacingNews365.com, Dieter Rencken provides a comprehensive analysis of the situation, covering the journey so far and what's likely to happen next.

Formula 1 and Volkswagen Group brands have long had on-off relationships. Apart from Porsche's sixties, eighties and nineties forays - the first with their victorious own car, the second as a contract engine supplier to the dominant McLaren team and the third a disastrous fling with Arrows - the diverse German automobile manufacturer were also tipped to enter in 2014 under either their VW or Audi brand.

Indeed, high-ranking technical managers are said to have attended engine working group sessions ahead of the introduction of F1's current hybrid power units, but then-chairman Ferdinand Pïech is said to have scuppered the plans over the sport's revenue and governance structures, coupled with his intense personal dislike for F1 tsar Bernie Ecclestone's ways.

Porsche Motorsport, though, built a concept engine to F1 regulations during the evaluation period, then successfully applied the lessons learned in the World Endurance Championship, winning three each Le Mans 24 Hour classics and driver and manufacturer titles with a V4 hybrid power unit designed by former Cosworth F1 engine engineer Alex Hitzinger. Team boss was current McLaren Team Principal Andreas Seidl.

However, Piech retired in early 2015, and soon thereafter the VW board again tabled an F1 project, with former FerrariStefano Domenicali team boss charged with overseeing the project; plans were well advanced and within seven days of being formalised when 'Dieselgate' erupted, putting a stop to a partnership or even purchase of at least one team, with Red Bull and/or Toro Rosso both high on VW's shopping list.

Project killed off, Domenicali was transferred to head up Lamborghini - an Audi subsidiary - from whence he was recruited by F1's commercial rights holder Liberty Media as CEO. Various sources are adamant that the highest priority set by his Liberty paymasters was to woo a VW Group company into F1, preferably as a team, but engine supplier would be a good consolation prize.

Forget not that Renault's CEO, Luca de Meo, and Williams Team Principal Jost Capito held top positions at Seat and VW respectively - the former bringing high-ranking personnel with him to the French company, while the latter was the brand's serial WRC-winning Motorsport Director - so various touchpoints already exist.

F1's push to attract the VW Group
Once in office, Domenicali wasted little time in tapping former colleagues, and in July 2021 Markus Duesmann and Oliver Blume, respectively the Audi and Porsche CEOs, attended an F1 engine summit called by the FIA/F1 during the Austrian Grand Prix. The target date for the new engine formula was pushed out a year already to 2026 to accommodate potential newcomers who may otherwise have been put off by shorter timelines.
Further meetings were held during the British and Italian Grand Prix weekends, with representatives from both brands attending and actively participating – signifying some serious intent. During these talks, the VW delegation insisted that F1 drop its horrifically expensive and complex MGU-H exhaust energy recovery systems, commit to fully sustainable fuels and impose engine budget caps as a precursor to further talks.
Despite some initial opposition to dropping the MGU-H - primarily from Mercedes - unanimous agreement on all points was reached in Monza, setting the stage for the VW brands to present plans to their boards. Simultaneously, rumours surfaced that Audi had reached an agreement in principle to acquire McLaren, but these proved premature; there had, though, been preliminary talks and these are said to be ongoing.
However, the Four Rings were and still are in talks with at least one other team, said to include Sauber - with which it has long-standing consultancy and engineering agreements - whose Alfa Romeo branding and livery deal expires end-2024. Williams are another potential target, subject to, of course, the Audi board approving an entry – which is far from a given (see below).
Still, on 14 December, ahead of the final 2021 FIA World Motorsport Council meeting of the year and Jean Todt's last as President, Duesmann, a former BMW F1 powertrain leader, submitted a letter to the FIA/F1 stating: "While we prepare for a decision from the management board and the supervisory board of the VW Group, we look forward to confirmation that the WMSC has approved [the Monza agreement]."
The letter, originally revealed by RacingNews365.com, continued: "Audi remains committed to this process and we look forward to working with you and your team to complete this important process, and to confirm our Formula 1 entry early [in 2022]."
What about Porsche striking a deal with Red Bull?
While Porsche are more guarded with their plans, multiple sources advise that discussions were held with Red Bull, which recently established a powertrain division – initially with a view to building and servicing the Honda F1 power units they acquired the intellectual property to when the company exited at end-2021.
One of the options is is to form a joint venture, with Red Bull managing and funding the project, and Porsche supplying powertrains. Such an arrangement would grant the energy drinks company a prestigious automotive partner while Porsche would have to access to the skills of Adrian Newey, the most successful F1 design 'brain' in the history of F1, and the stellar engineering team in Milton Keynes. What is not to like?
Sister team AlphaTauri would be the secondary recipient of the powertrains, with Williams, whose CEO/Team Principal Capito could leverage his long-standing ties with both parties - his first motorsport job was with Porsche while the all-conquering VW Polo WEC project sponsored by Red Bull - to secure a tertiary supply of powertrains unless the British team goes with Audi in some shape or form.
Such an arrangement would tick all boxes, including the regulatory requirement of supplying customer teams if called upon to do so, while enabling Porsche to gain experience and data from six cars – unlike Honda, which started winning only once they started supplying multiple teams.
A decision from Porsche is expected in March, with the main discussion point being whether Porsche insists on building power units in Germany or are willing to move into the Red Bull Powertrain facility in Milton Keynes – which will no longer build Honda engines after an agreement was struck to source unbranded units directly from Japan. In the interim, a full-on F1 engine operation sits empty, awaiting a tenant.
Of the two, Porsche's is easier to approve. In 2020 they netted EU 4bn off sales of 260,000 units, whereas Audi bottom lined EU 2,7bn from sales of 1,1m units. Expressed differently, Porsche's return on sales was 15,5% - three times that of Audi - making it difficult for the main boards to decline Porsche's project, particularly as two senior Porsche family members hold supervisory board votes and their surname is above the door.
Add in that Qatar's sovereign wealth fund holds 17% of VW stock and the country is gearing up for a Formula 1 future - having hosted its maiden Grand Prix in 2021 - and the project is all but formally approved at board level as this is written. Therefore, the only remaining question appears to be: a 50/50 joint venture with Red Bull or purely an engine supply agreement. Once that decision is taken the rest falls into place.
How would the VW Group brands fund an F1 programme?
The word from Ingolstadt is that Duesmann was informed that any Audi F1 project needs to be self-funding. This could be achieved via an in-house team provided it generates substantial commercial and trade support and annually earns upwards of $70m (EU60m) in prize money. F1's budget cap, revised revenue structures and its global footprint should make this achievable provided the team performs and places fifth or higher.
Engines would, though, be on top – hence calls for engine budget caps. All engine suppliers' teams are in favour of some form of cost and testing restrictions seem inevitable, with a figure of $100m per annum per supplier being mentioned, although finer details - such as incremental spend to cater for multi-team supply - need to be thrashed out, as do exact concessions for newcomers.
As an aside, consider that in 2020 - the last year on record - Mercedes High Performance Powertrains (the F1 engine division) reported a turnover of around $240m, of which around 70% was directly attributable to F1 engine operations, thus $170m across the three teams it then serviced (McLaren joined the roster last year).
The Audi board's conditions that any Audi entry be revenue-neutral would explain the company's overtures to McLaren and Sauber, as Audi could acquire a team in the interim and upgrade its facilities to 'works' standards under F1's capital expenditure clauses - which are not as restrictive as budget caps - in order to be ready for 2026 and by then be self-sufficient.
Audi Sport have a fully-fledged motorsport operation in Neuburg (near Ingolstadt). The teams that designed and produced the Le Mans-winning battery and flywheel hybrid units are largely in place, having switched focus to Formula E and Dakar (last-named with the E-tron buggy that made its debut this year, striking fear into the competition with some spectacular performances), and could be readily switched to the F1 project.
As previously outlined by RacingNews365.com, from 2026 energy recovery could be via all- or two-wheel-drive, with energy stores (batteries) being largely standardised, although electronics will be free. Prescription bottom-ends (engine block, pistons, rods, crankshaft etc.) are under consideration to reduce cost and complexity, but fundamentally F1's 2026 engines are set to retain the current V6 turbo architecture.
These factors work in Audi's favour in that the brands will be able to share (or source) common components to the benefit of both projects, with Porsche providing ICE and e-fuels expertise and Audi the hybrid elements, thereby enabling them to go head-to-head in the world's largest and most visible motor racing series, one that is gaining enormous traction – mainly due to Netflix, which took the sport mainstream.
Significantly, Porsche and Red Bull's fuel and lubrication partner, ExxonMobil, are currently collaborating on the development of e-fuels – synthetic fuels made from hydrogen and captured carbon dioxide. They plan to test the second iteration of racing fuels under competition conditions. E-fuels could achieve a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of 85 per cent when blended to current fuel standards for ICE passenger vehicles.
Porsche and Audi going head-to-head
The head-to-head aspect is peculiar to the VW Group. Where most multi-brand conglomerates shun internecine competition, VW actively encourages inter-brand rivalry on the basis that Audi, Bentley, Lamborghini and Porsche compete in open markets, and should be prepared to prove themselves in open competition to the benefit of all 'breeds'. Whether that philosophy swings a board vote in Audi's favour remains, though, to be seen…
Either way, Domenicali is highly confident at least one VW brand will commit, and sorely needed another supplier is, too. After Honda's exit, three engine suppliers remain for 2026: Ferrari, Mercedes and Renault. Should another walk - motor manufacturers make a habit of popping in and out of F1 - the sport would be down to two suppliers, neither of which wish to supply five teams. Non-works teams would be at their mercy.
That said, VW Group's project(s) may still be blocked by the all-powerful works councils, which hold their AGM in February and have significant board representation. According to a source, the councils threatened to block any F1 plans and gave notice of tabling a motion to that effect. The flash point was recent comments by VW Group board Chairman Herbert Diess that up to 30,000 workers could be retrenched due to electrification.
Therefore, the next two months will decide F1's future landscape. If neither VW brand enters F1, the sport will find itself at the mercy of existing engine suppliers with little hope of enticing another manufacturer into the fold. After all, if Audi or Porsche decline to enter after all this time, effort and executive involvement, what chance is there that another manufacturer will take a last-minute decision in time for 2026? F1 needs to pull this off.
 
#34 ·
MOTORSPORT
Verstappen wins Autosport’s International Racing Driver of the Year Award

Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen is the winner of Autosport’s 2021 International Racing Driver of the Year Award presented by Pirelli.

By: Kevin Turner
Feb 6, 2022

Verstappen ended Lewis Hamilton’s domination of F1 by snatching the crown in the dramatic Abu Dhabi Grand Prix finale. The Red Bull star took 10 wins and 10 pole positions on his way to his first F1 title.

Autosport readers have voted Verstappen the best racing driver of 2021, ahead of main rival Hamilton, IndyCar champion Alex Palou and Formula E title winner Nyck de Vries.

Verstappen’s victory was announced on 6 February at the Autosport Awards, which returned to a live event at Grosvenor House on Park Lane following the online-only competition of 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"First of all, I would like to say a big thank for you to all the fans for voting for me to win this award. All the support over the year was amazing," said Verstappen via a video message.

"I would like to thank Red Bull and Honda for giving me the car to win the world championship."

Red Bull boss Christian Horner accepted the award on behalf of Verstappen, adding: "Obviously he has developed and matured over the last few years. The way he drove last year was outstanding and to go up against Lewis Hamilton who was at the top of his game.

"Max led more laps than any other driver and won more races, he thoroughly deserves this award."

The award, which has been running since 1982, is open to professional racing drivers competing at international level. Verstappen is the first Dutch driver to win the award.

Former winners include F1 world champions Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher, Mika Hakkinen and Sebastian Vettel, while the British drivers on the honours list are Nigel Mansell, Damon Hill, Jenson Button and Hamilton.
Other categories decided by fan voting include British Competition Driver of the Year, Rookie of the Year, International Racing Car of the Year presented by Blink Experience, Rally Car of the Year, International Rally Driver of the Year, National Driver of the Year and Esports Driver of the Year presented by Motorsport Games.

Further awards, decided by expert judging panels, include the Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award, and the Pioneering and Innovation Award presented by Mahindra Racing incorporating the John Bolster Trophy for Technical Achievement. New awards for 2021 include the Gold Medal incorporating the Gregor Grant Award and Esports Team of the Year presented by Motorsport Games.
 
#35 ·
MOTORSPORT
Norris named Autosport’s British Competition Driver of the Year

McLaren Formula 1 star Lando Norris is the winner of Autosport’s 2021 British Competition Driver of the Year Award.
By: Kevin Turner
Feb 6, 2022
Norris took his first F1 pole position in 2021 and finished sixth in the drivers’ championship, ahead of highly rated team-mate Daniel Ricciardo.

Autosport readers have voted Norris the best British driver of last season, ahead of fellow F1 rising star George Russell, World Endurance champion and Le Mans winner Mike Conway, and Formula E race winner Jake Dennis. It is the third consecutive time Norris has scooped the honour, which excludes those nominated for the International Racing Driver of the Year Award.

Norris’s success was announced on 6 February at the Autosport Awards, which returned to a live event at Grosvenor House on Park Lane following the online-only competition of 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“In a way this is more important than winning the Formula 1 world championship as this is voted for by the fans," said Norris, who provided a video message upon receiving the award by Pat Symonds, Chief Technical Officer of Formula 1.

"Hopefully this season is even better at McLaren."

Previous winners include F1 world champions Nigel Mansell, Damon Hill, Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton. F1 drivers-turned commentators Martin Brundle and David Coulthard are also former victors.

Other categories decided by fan voting include International Racing Driver of the Year presented by Pirelli, Rookie of the Year, International Racing Car of the Year presented by Blink Experience, Rally Car of the Year, International Rally Driver of the Year, National Driver of the Year and Esports Driver of the Year presented by Motorsport Games.
Further awards, decided by expert judging panels, include the Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award, and the Pioneering and Innovation Award presented by Mahindra Racing incorporating the John Bolster Trophy for Technical Achievement. New awards for 2021 include the Gold Medal incorporating the Gregor Grant Award and Esports Team of the Year presented by Motorsport Games.
 
#36 · (Edited)
Spa-Francorchamps is changing too !

Not the track in itself but the surroundings.
They make modifications to allow the return of motorcycle races mainly by increasing some run-off areas but also by adding gravel beds.

I think it will have an impact on the car races as well, as the pilots will not have all the room they had before outside the track.

 
#37 ·
MOTORSPORT.COM
All the F1 launch dates in 2022

Haas was the first team to present its 2022 colours last week when it dropped a series of renders featuring its livery for the new season, starting a busy three-week period leading up to the start of winter testing in Barcelona.
By: Luke Smith
Feb 7, 2022
Launch season in 2021 was a strange affair given the continued impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, forcing teams to get creative, particularly as they were essentially unveiling updated versions of their 2020 models.

But 2022 is a very different story as F1 embarks on the start of a vital new rule cycle that threatens to shake up the pecking order - meaning teams will want to be particularly careful in keeping any creative design pursuits under wraps for as long as possible. It has made online launches the typical route, although some are finding ways to get fans involved and hold physical events.

Teams have taken a variety of different approaches towards launching their cars in recent years. Some like Haas opt for a render drop followed by a look at the real car once testing begins, while others such as McLaren and Mercedes have opted to get on-track straightaway with a shakedown to coincide with the launch - albeit without giving away too much.

The overall presentation has also varied from team to team, but there should be plenty for fans to get excited about in the coming weeks as they cross off the days before testing begins on 23 February.
Haas - 4 February
The Haas VF-22 car is the first produced by the American team out of its new design office in Maranello, and offered a sign of what the new cars will look like this year following the overhaul of the technical regulations.
Team boss Gunther Steiner was clear that the renders show it in an earlier phase of the development, with more to come when the VF-22 hits the track for the first time at Barcelona. Aside from the livery, which is an evolution of last year's design, there was plenty for us to chew over that's different from the renders and the show car that FOM presented last year.

Perhaps the most obvious difference is the team's approach to the sidepods, with a very narrow inlet used to feed the radiators within. A relatively large undercut is also noticeable under the sidepod, which aligns well with the suspension elements in order that airflow might be fed around the sidepod without stealing too much from the entrance to the Venturi tunnels beneath.
Red Bull - 9 February
Like Haas, Red Bull also left it relatively late to announce its launch plans, only confirming last Thursday that it would be presenting its RB18 car on 9 February.

In recent years, Red Bull has opted to release a couple of renders and complete a shakedown - with the decision not to issue any actual pictures from last year’s initial runout fuelling intrigue - but plans are in the works for a fan-centric launch this year. The team is set to invite up to 5,000 fans to sign up via its platform to then stream the launch via their own social media channels.

But after such a close fight with Mercedes last year, don’t expect Red Bull to give away too much through the launch as it looks to keep the momentum going from Max Verstappen’s championship win last year.
Aston Martin - 10 February
Aston Martin made a big statement with its launch in 2021, drawing on star power from ambassadors such as Daniel Craig and Tom Brady to kick off the team’s new era in serious style.

On-track, it proved to be a more difficult season as the team slipped to seventh in the constructors’ championship, but team owner Lawrence Stroll has always been clear about the long-term plan in place to build it into a front-running operation.

The AMR22 launch may give Aston Martin another chance to call on the star power of the brand - after all, why not? - but the novelty of its return will be less of a story this year. More important will be the proof of progress heading into the new regulation cycle to prove it is really on the right path.

McLaren - 11 February
McLaren has been one of the first teams to bring back in-person events as the Covid situation has improved, and will continue that trend with a proper launch in Woking on 11 February.

The launch will be attended by media on-site, and the team has also given the opportunity for some fans to attend through a competition. Fans were at the heart of last year’s virtual event, which largely centred on the arrival of Daniel Ricciardo, but some will get the chance to be there in person this time around.

McLaren will use the event to launch all four of its racing programmes for 2022 - F1, IndyCar, Extreme E and Esports - and has plenty of breathing room to complete a shakedown with the MCL36 ahead of the start of testing in Barcelona.

AlphaTauri - 14 February
AlphaTauri has rarely been one of the big hitters when it comes to F1 launch season, with its only major event coming after the rebrand from Toro Rosso before the 2020 campaign started.

The plan this year is for an online launch set for 14 February, but given the team’s excellent social and digital output, there is no reason why it won’t offer a surprise or two.
Ferrari - 17 February
The new regulation cycle is a natural opportunity for all teams to take a step forward, yet it is Ferrari who arguably faces the greatest expectation to return to the very front of the pack after slipping back in the last couple of years.

The F1-75 - named to mark 75 years of Scuderia Ferrari - will be launched online on the afternoon of 17 February. The car completed its first fire-up yesterday, and will likely complete a shakedown at Fiorano after being launched ahead of pre-season testing in Barcelona.

Mercedes - 18 February
Mercedes has operated with quite a traditional formula for its launches in recent years, opting to initially reveal the car via renders before then releasing pictures of it on-track during a shakedown at Silverstone.

Like Red Bull and Ferrari, Mercedes will be particularly eager to ensure it does not give much away to its primary rivals before testing. But encouragement can be taken by how early the W13 was fired up back in December. Rumours of a failed crash test have also been scotched via confirmation from the team it completed all of its FIA requirements back in mid-January.

Continued intrigue over Lewis Hamilton’s future and the arrival of George Russell for 2022 means that Mercedes’ unveiling will be one of the most talked about in launch season.

Alpine - 21 February
Similar to Aston Martin, the narrative around the rebranding of Alpine that was leant on so heavily in 2021 is no longer going to be such a story - nor will be the comeback of Fernando Alonso. Instead, this is a team that will want to signal its push to build on its breakthrough last year that saw Esteban Ocon score a shock win in Hungary, helping it clinch fifth in the constructors’ championship.

The management reshuffle at Alpine has been the main talking point over the winter, with ex-Aston Martin F1 boss Otmar Szafnauer widely expected to join following the exit of Marcin Budkowski, although nothing has yet been confirmed. No firm details have yet been revealed about the launch plans for the A522 car besides an unveil date of 21 February.

Alfa Romeo - 27 February
Alfa Romeo’s launch announcement initially sparked some confusion, given it was slated for after the opening pre-season test in Barcelona (23-25 February) had already been completed.

But the team was quick to clarify that the C42 car will be featuring in the opening test, decked out in a special livery, before the final design is revealed at the launch on 27 February.

It is an unusual approach, but it means the event will be more of a ‘season launch’ for Alfa Romeo rather than a car launch, given we’ll have already seen the full thing on-track. The new line-up of Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou means the team arguably has one of the stronger narratives going into this time of year.

Williams - TBA
The only team yet to confirm any plans for its launch in 2022 is Williams. Typically, the team has opted to drop renders of the new car ahead of testing, and last year tried to reveal the car via an interactive augmented reality app, only for hackers to spoil the plans and cause the design to be leaked out.

The breakthroughs in 2021 and return to battling in the midfield gives Williams plenty of good momentum going into the new season, while the arrival of Alex Albon is also a cool story. But as of yet, quite how we’ll get a first look at (what one would presume will be called) the FW44 remains unknown.
 
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