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Much like how its owner Lewis Hamilton probably sees the upcoming Formula One season as a campaign of vengeance, Team X44 is striving to do the same after falling short in the 2021 Extreme E Championship. After leading Friday’s practice session and barely missing out on setting the fastest time in single-car qualifying (though hindered by a time penalty), the team dominated the second qualifying round’s heat race to put the #44 entry in the catbird seat for Sunday’s events.

X44’s Sébastien Loeb began the first heat and led the way on his lap with Sara Price (Chip Ganassi Racing) and Nasser Al-Attiyah (ABT CUPRA XE) in tow. However, in a right-hand turn leading to the eighteenth waypoint, Al-Attiyah attempted an aggressive overtake on Dakar Rally rival Carlos Sainz that caused him to go off course and ride on his left-side wheels. While trying to recover, he slammed into Sainz’s left side, causing substantial damage to the CUPRA car and resulting in Al-Attiyah being relegated to fourth and last of the cars that started the heat. The incident also meant X44’s only other opponent was the Ganassi entry; although CGR’s Kyle LeDuc set a faster time than X44’s Cristina Gutiérrez, he could not catch her for the heat win.

With a runner-up in the first round and the heat win, X44 accumulated the most Intermediate Classificiation points yet again with nineteen of a possible twenty. The team has dominated qualifying since Extreme E’s inception, winning at least a round of qualifying in all five 2021 rounds and sweeping both on three instances.

“We knew it would be difficult, but luckily we found a good line and we both drove well, so I am very happy,” commented Loeb. “It could be a totally different terrain tomorrow with a lot of dust so the starting position will be important, but we are feeling confident.”

In the second heat, Andretti United XE‘s Timmy Hansen edged out McLaren XE‘s Tanner Foust to lead the opening lap, a rather fitting 1–2 run for the two teams as Andretti United is co-owned by McLaren CEO Zak Brown (though Brown has stressed that his current Extreme E involvement is wholly in McLaren). Rosberg X Racing, who led single-car qualifying, was third with Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky prior to the driver switch.

Michael Andretti‘s attempt to buy into the Sauber/Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN may have fallen apart, but he is not giving up on entering Formula One. A fairly typical Friday was upended when his father, the great Mario Andretti, casually revealed on Twitter that Michael intends to start his own F1 team and has filed paperwork with the FIA for entry. Known as Andretti Global, the team hopes to début in 2024.

“Michael has applied to the FIA to field a new F1 team starting in 2024,” Mario tweeted. “His entry, Andretti Global, has the resources and checks every box. He is awaiting the FIA’s determination.”

Unexpected surprise and nonchalantness of the tweet aside, the announcement sent shockwaves throughout the racing world. Andretti, one of the biggest names in racing history, running an F1 team? You could not get any better than that.

It is not like Michael would be joining the top level of open-wheel racing without ownership experience either, as his Andretti Autosport team is a four-time NTT IndyCar Series and five-time Indianapolis 500 winner. Andretti, the 1991 CART champion, also runs Avalanche Andretti in Formula E, and co-owns Walkinshaw Andretti United in the Repco Supercars Championship and Andretti United XE in Extreme E with United Autosports. United is owned by McLaren Racing head Zak Brown, and Andretti raced for the team during his lone F1 season in 1993. McLaren also collaborated with Andretti to field an IndyCar for Fernando Alonso in the 2017 Indianapolis 500.

Andretti Autosport has also seen successes in other disciplines like sports cars, having fielded an Acura factory team in the American Le Mans Series, and rallycross, winning three Red Bull Global Rallycross titles with Scott Speed. The Andretti name even appears in Mexican touring cars, where Andretti co-owns Andretti Jourdain Autosport alongside former CART rival Michel Jourdain Jr. in the Super Copa Championship, and the Gallant Andretti LMP3 and Short Track division led by his nephew Jarett.

Mike Elliott, the Technical Director of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team, says the regulation changes presented the team with some of the biggest changes he’s witnessed during his time in Formula 1 as they developed their 2022 challenger, the W13.

Mercedes unveiled their new car on Friday, the eighth of ten teams to do so, and Elliott says there were many challenges that presented themselves to the engineers as they adapted to the new regulations.

The regulation changes meant there were very distinct changes between the Constructors’ Championship winning W12 and the W13, with Elliott feeling there were three separate aspects to take into account.

“On the chassis side, the changes are huge,” said Elliott. “We haven’t had a change as big as this one in my career.

“I think there are three aspects to this: first, the way the regulations are constructed is very different, particularly for aerodynamics, and that has a big impact. Second, what they are trying to achieve with the aerodynamics means the cars are fundamentally a different shape.

Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team launched their 2022 challenger the W13 last Friday morning, before completing a shakedown test at a very wet Silverstone. It is the start of a brand-new era in Formula 1, Mercedes will be hoping to dominate this era the same way they dominated the last one up until last season.

Whilst this season see’s the biggest technical regulation change in the sport’s history, the power unit (PU) hasn’t been a component to see much change for this year. Hywel Thomas, Managing Director of Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains (HPP), explained at the launch about how the team have been allowed a final significant upgrade like every other team to the PU.

“In 2022 we’ve been allowed one final performance upgrade, most of which needs to be delivered at the start of the season, and the ERS system upgrade must be introduced before 1st September. But this doesn’t only have an impact on 2022, because the performance specification will remain frozen until the start of the next regulation cycle in 2026, The project we took on for 2022 was large, and it is a very broad upgrade across the different elements, to get every last bit of performance, efficiency and reliability.”

Despite the PU actually being one of the least affected components heading into the new season, it has still seen considerable change. Mercedes have never changed so many parts of their PU since 2014, demonstrating just how big the regulation changes for the upcoming season are. It’s also been vital for the chassis team to work alongside those at Mercedes AMG HPP.

“There are also some FIA-imposed measurements, particularly in the ERS system, that we had to accommodate as well,” said Thomas, “The chassis team have been working very diligently and swiftly through the new regulations, so they can understand where the opportunities lie, and which areas are lap time sensitive. We make adjustments to the PU that allow the chassis team to best exploit the regulations. We might want to rearrange the installation slightly or change the PU layout to get more flexibility in those lap time sensitive areas.

Enrico Gualtieri, the Head of the Power Unit Area at Scuderia Ferrari, says his team have been working extremely hard to improve their engine ahead of the 2022 Formula 1 season.

Gualtieri says everything about the engine has been designed with efficiency in mind, with upgrades being made to the energy recovery systems as well as the internal combustion engine.  The bid is to improve the engine and bring it up to the level seen at the front of the field in recent years.

The power unit was also created to fit into the chassis’ side requirements, particularly with the new aerodynamic regulations coming into force in 2022.  And Gualtieri says they were aware of the responsibilities of honouring Ferrari in what will be their seventy-fifth year, hence the F1-75 name of the 2022 challenger.

“It has been an intense and exciting challenge,” said Gualtieri.  “All components have been re-evaluated: some have been optimised, while others were decidedly innovative.

“We started from the main concept of seeking the utmost efficiency in the energy transformation process, from the chemical one in terms of combustion to the mechanical one, to the crankshaft. Everything else has been designed with this goal in mind.

Scuderia Ferrari one of the favourites heading into the upcoming 2022 Formula 1 season, unveiled their F1-75 last Thursday afternoon, presenting to the world one of the best looking cars the team have produced in years.

2022 of course see’s the greatest technical regulation change in the sports history, as F1 prepares itself for a brand new era of racing. Ferrari are known to have dedicated a lot of 2021 to work on their car for this season. The Prancing Horse’s are for some the favourites to take the championship this season.

When the lights finally go green at the season opening Bahrain Grand Prix, engineers throughout the paddock will be relieved that they’ve all made it, after what’s been a difficult winter for all involved in designing and building the 2022 cars.

One of those engineers who will be relieved is Ferrari’s Head of Chassis Project Engineering, Fabio Montecchi, who is hopeful that Ferrari have dialled in their F1-75 to perform at peak level.

“The first key factor for the design of a car that is so different from its predecessors is time management. We allowed much more time than usual for the design phase, examining in depth all the rule changes in order to squeeze out every ounce of performance, exploring a large number of solutions through studies, simulations and bench tests.

Veloce Racing‘s Christine “GZ” Giampaoli Zonca will miss the Desert X Prix after a scary wreck in Saturday’s first round of qualifying that resulted in a fractured foot. Her injuries thankfully do not extend beyond that, but nevertheless team reserve and guest Championship Driver Hedda Hosås will take over her spot for the X Prix.

About two minutes into her qualifying run, Giampaoli Zonca was navigating a lefthand turn when her Odyssey 21 dug into the sand, causing the vehicle to go airbourne. The car landed on its roof before catching air once more and finally coming to a rest upside-down. Giampaoli Zonca was taken to the medical centre before moving to a local hospital, where she was diagnosed with the foot injury. She has since been discharged.

Giampaoli Zonca posted in an Instagram Story, “Just a broken foot, all good, thank you everyone!!!”

The crash forced Veloce to miss its heat race later on Saturday. Since the team placed last in both rounds of qualifying even if due to unfortunate circumstance, it has the fewest Intermediate Classification points and will therefore run the Crazy Race on Sunday; the top two in that event advances to the Final.

Later in the day, Hosås was able to complete a shakedown lap in Veloce’s car and ensure the team will race on Sunday. Besides being a reserve for Veloce specifically, she and Romain Dumas are guest Championship Drivers for the Desert X Prix; Championship Drivers are employed by Extreme E as advisors and substitutes in the event of a regular not being fit enough to race. The series’ main female backup Tamara Molinaro is filling in for Klara Andersson, who tested positive for COVID-19, at XITE Energy Racing, meaning Hosås would have to help out Veloce.

Scuderia Ferrari launched their simply stunning F1-75 last Thursday in a brilliant presentation, leaving the world drooling at the F1-75’s beauty. The launch took place online last Thursday afternoon at the Gestione Sportiva in Maranello.

It will be Ferrari’s 68th season in the pinnacle of motor racing, with their F1-75 named in recognition of the manufacturer who are this year celebrating their 75th anniversary. Back in Maranello, the Ferrari engineers have had to adjust to the huge technical regulation changes for the upcoming season.

Ferrari’s head of Chassis, Enrico Cardile, has arguably had one of the toughest of jobs over the past year, having to study and learn the new technical regulations. Cardile believes the new regulations have made for an exciting challenge for all involved at Ferrari.

“The rule changes in 2022 are undoubtedly the most radical of the last 40 years. As a team we adopted a systemic and integrated approach to the challenge, defining clear priorities among the many objectives, often at odds with each other.

“In tandem with the car development, we improved our simulation tools, to bring light into the dark corners that existed in the past. Aerodynamics was definitely our number one priority. We approached it with an open mind and seized the opportunity of the rule changes to go in many different directions, bucking the trends of recent years.

Laurent Mekies says Scuderia Ferrari will need to manage themselves well across what is going to be Formula 1’s longest and busiest season after the launch of their 2022 challenger, the F1-75.

Ferrari unveiled their new car on Thursday ahead of the planned twenty-three race campaign, the most events ever for a single season, with the first event taking place in Bahrain next month.

And Mekies, the Racing Director and Head of Track Area at Ferrari, says the challenge ahead is going to be an incredible one for the Maranello-based team as they bid to improve on their third place in the Constructors’ Championship from 2021.

“Our race team is gearing up for the longest season ever and possibly for one of the most surprising seasons of the last decade,” said Mekies.  “Different regulations, different cars, 23 races. It’s going to be an incredible challenge for all of us.

“Last year we had a good scrap for third place in the Constructors’ Championship and, as a team, we made significant progress. The coming season might hold some surprises.”

Alexander Albon is ready for his return to racing in Formula 1 in 2022 after seeing the unveiling of Williams Racing’s FW44 earlier this week.

The Thai driver sat out the 2021 season after Red Bull Racing opted to replace him with Mexican racer Sergio Pérez, and Albon was relegated to the reserve driver role with the Milton Keynes-based team. 

He did race a partial campaign in the German-based DTM Series in a Red Bull-backed Ferrari to keep himself active, and he was chosen by Williams to replace the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team bound George Russell for 2022.

Albon says the new car looks good, but it will be important to maximise the time on track in testing ahead of the race debut in Bahrain next month.

“The FW44 livery is clean and simple,” said Albon.  “I like that we’ve gone for more blue with the dynamic diamond finish and a little bit of red; it looks really good and I’m looking forward to seeing it out on track.

Ahmet Mercan says AlphaTauri, the fashion brand of Red Bull, has grown as a company since Scuderia Toro Rosso became Scuderia AlphaTauri ahead of the 2020 season.

Speaking at the launch of AlphaTauri’s 2022 Formula 1 challenger, the AT03, Mercan, the CEO of AlphaTauri, says the synergy between fashion and Formula 1 has been fantastic and is continuing to grow as the relationship starts into its third year.

“This season, we will continue adding a certain fashion and design aspect to the world of premium motorsports,” said Mercan.  “We see a fantastic synergy between both – fashion and Formula 1 – especially when you start collaborating with each other long-term.

“F1 is a playground for us as fashion-pioneers to get inspired, and test new technologies and innovations under extreme conditions. The experiences from F1 may also flow into our regular fashion collections.

“We are happy about the growth of our relationship and are very much looking forward to the new season.”

Over the winter, Scuderia AlphaTauri announced Marco Perrone would move from his role as Head of Strategy to take on a new role of Head of Sporting Direction, and he is thankful for the opportunities the team have given him since leaving university.

Speaking at the release of AlphaTauri’s 2022 challenger, the AT03, Perrone, who has been with the team for fourteen years, says his new role is ‘very important’ and it is a ‘great opportunity’ for him.

“The short answer is because I love this team – that’s the main reason,” said Perrone.  “It has given me great possibilities. I started here straight from university in 2008, working as a mechanical engineer in R&D.

“After that, the team gave me a lot of opportunities year after year. It’s a great challenge to be able to help the team in what is a complicated set of tasks, it’s an important part of this game and also, within these tough tasks, I would say that there are a lot of opportunities to show how good we can be in several areas, such as car preparation and pit stops for example.

“Also, part of the team’s image stems from our preparation and discipline. Therefore, I think it’s a very important role and that’s why I thought that it was a great opportunity to take on.”

Jean-Éric Vergne secured his first podium finish of the 2021-22 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship season in the Mexico City E-Prix, but he acknowledged that his DS Techeetah team were only the second-best team at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

The Tag Heuer Porsche FE Team galloped to a one-two finish in Saturday’s race, with Vergne forced to battle with the likes of Edoardo Mortaro, Robin Frijns and his Techeetah team-mate António Félix da Costa for the final position on the podium.

He ran second behind ROKiT Venturi Racing’s Mortara in the early laps before Porsche showed their hand, and he ultimately passed the Swiss driver with four laps remaining to ensure the top three spot.

With Porsche running hard to extend the race by one lap at the end, Vergne says the decision by the team to conserve energy early paid off as he was able to take third place, even though the pace of the Porsche’s made it impossible for anything better.

However, he was pleased with the way Techeetah responded after a difficult opening to the season in the Diriyah E-Prix double-header, and he hopes the progress can continue into the Rome E-Prix in April as he seeks his first victory of the year.

André Lotterer says the one-two finish in the Mexico City E-Prix is a ‘great result’ for the Tag Heuer Porsche FE Team, and the performance last Saturday showed the team are serious contenders for the 2021-22 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship title.

Despite dropping back in the early laps as he conserved usable energy for later in the race, Lotterer was able to finish on the tail of team-mate Pascal Wehrlein at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, with the duo ending more than nine seconds clear of the rest of the field.

Porsche asked Lotterer not to attack Wehrlein to ensure the one-two finish, but it was a pleasing result for the German racer to stand on the podium alongside his team-mate, and it showed that the hard work the team have been doing was being rewarded.

“This is a great result for the team,” said Lotterer.  “Everyone has invested a lot of hard work. Last season with its ups and downs was not easy for us, but now everything has worked out.

“Both cars ran well from the first practice session. With this one-two result, we showed that we’re serious contenders for the world championship title.” 

Pascal Wehrlein hopes the first victory in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship for both himself and his Tag Heuer Porsche FE Team will give everyone confidence and momentum into the rest of the 2021-22 season.

The German put the disappointments of his previous visits to Mexico behind him to take his maiden win last Saturday, finishing just ahead of team-mate André Lotterer as Porsche showed a strong hand at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez to clinch their first Formula E victory.

Early on, Wehrlein conserved energy and allowed others to pass him, with the energy he was saving giving him the advantage in the latter stages.  And such was their domination, the team pushed for him to run an extra lap, which put others at a serious disadvantage as they were forced to slow to conserve energy in order just to finish.

Wehrlein says the team never lost hope as they chased their maiden Formula E win, while he was able to push the memories of lost wins in both 2018 and 2020 in Mexico away as he finally stood on the top step of the podium.

“I‘ve come close to winning twice in Mexico in the past so I’m delighted that it worked this time,” said Wehrlein, who moved up to third place in the Drivers’ Championship thanks to his victory from pole position.  “The team had a great plan, although at first I wasn’t entirely sure it would work.