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2022 Formula 1 season essentials
The 2021 Formula 1 season will be remembered for a long time, as we’ve experienced some unbelievable races. Hollywood could not write a better script, with the championship being decided on the last lap at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. Moreover, we had six different race winners from four teams last year.
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Despite the 2021 Formula 1 season being one of the most exciting and entertaining in Formula 1 history, the pinnacle of motorsport is about to undergo enormous rule changes this year, as the sport will introduce one of its largest technical overhauls in history. The development of the new rules is led by F1’s Chief Technical Officer, Pat Symonds. The aim is quite simple: the cars should be able to run more closely together to aid overtaking, hence promoting better racing.
You’ve may have heard about ‘dirty air’ which currently makes it tough to follow other cars. According to the calculations, you lose around 47% of downforce when following another car at 20 meters and this number will be reduced to just 4% next year by changing the aerodynamics of the cars. This means the return of the ground-effect formula, which was banned in Formula 1 at the end of 1982 – however it shouldn’t be described as a return of that era as there are major differences in the execution.
The most noticeable changes of the 2022 car are the all-new front and rear wing shapes combined with the removal of complex bargeboards. There were some talks about getting rid of the drag reduction system (DRS), however, it will remain on the rear wing.
F1 is reintroducing wheel covers, and we will see over the wheel winglets on an F1 car for the first time in history. There are changes regarding the tyres too, F1 will use 18” inch low profile Pirelli’s to reduce overheating issues.
At the same time, F1 retains the current 1.6-litre turbo-hybrid units, however, teams will use E10 biofuels from 2022, which also contributes to F1’s net-zero carbon emissions target by 2030.
As safety is a top priority for the FIA, the revolutionary pieces of machinery will be safer than ever, which results in a 5% increase in the minimum weight of the cars. The current $145 million budget cap is also set to drop to $140 – as it was agreed by the teams earlier.
Let’s take a look at the driver lineups for the 2022 Formula 1 season:
Logo | Team | Drivers | Points in 2021 |
---|---|---|---|
Mercedes-AMG F1 Team | Lewis Hamilton – #44 George Russell – #63 | 613.5 | |
Red Bull Racing | Max Verstappen – #1 Sergio Perez – #11 | 585.5 | |
Scuderia Ferrari | Charles Leclerc – #16 Carlos Sainz – #55 | 323.5 | |
McLaren Racing | Daniel Ricciardo – #3 Lando Norris – #4 | 275 | |
Alpine F1 Team | Fernando Alonso – #14 Esteban Ocon – #31 | 155 | |
Scuderia AlphaTauri | Pierre Gasly – #10 Yuki Tsunoda – #22 | 142 | |
Aston Martin F1 Team | Sebastian Vettel – #5 Lance Stroll – #18 | 77 | |
Williams Racing | Nicholas Latifi – #6 Alex Albon – #23 | 23 | |
Alfa Romeo Racing | Zhou Guanyu – #24 Valtteri Bottas – #77 | 13 | |
Haas F1 Team | Nikita Mazepin – #9 Mick Schumacher – #47 | 0 |
Guanyu Zhou steps up from Formula 2 and will make his debut with Alfa Romeo alongside Valtteri Bottas who moved from Mercedes, as a replacement of Kimi Raikkönen. Zhou will become China’s first-ever F1 driver. There were changes at Mercedes as well. George Russell was promoted to be Lewis Hamilton’s new teammate this year. After securing a deal to race for Williams, former Red Bull racer Alex Albon will return to F1 and he will partner Nicholas Latifi for the 2022 season.
Here is the 2022 Formula 1 calendar:
With all the technical and driver market changes, we’ll have a record-breaking 23 race calendar in 2022, which includes the debut of the long-awaited Miami Grand Prix around the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens. Moreover – as it stands, the race weekend in Bahrain, Imola, Canada, Austria, the Netherlands and Brazil will all feature a Sprint race, which takes place on the day before the main event. The first pre-season test will kick off in Barcelona at the end of February, followed by a second test in Bahrain just one week before the season opener.
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