Formula 1 preview All you need to know about 2022

THE GREAT RESET

Forget Mercedes domination and dodgy decisions, because F1 is entering a whole new era. Simon Hucknall previews the action ahead of this weekend’ s season opener

At 40, Fernando

Alonso is now the grid’s elder statesman. According to Chandhok, “he has been just eight points away from being a five-time world champion” .

“L

ast season was one of the best in the history of Formula 1. It’s just a shame that the final 10 minutes undid 10 months of brilliance. ” Karun Chandhok, former F1 driver and now Sky F1 pundit, is typically outspoken as we look out from Silverstone’s new Interactive Museum over the circuit. We’re here to talk about the upcoming 2022 season and how the biggest changes in the sport’s regulations for four decades will bear upon it. And since a significant chunk of those regs will have a direct effect on the cars’ dynamics, we’ve also brought along Rob Wilson, driver coach to some of the world’s best. Wilson’s techniques have been adopted by around 75 drivers over the past four decades, including nine on this year’s grid, so will he need to tweak his tuition?

But first, some lines need drawing. “Let’s be very clear, ” says Chandhok, “[then race director] Michael Masi made a mistake in Abu Dhabi. He should have asked all the lapped cars to go past on lap 56 and pulled the safety car in on lap 57; then they would have had one racing lap on lap 58. What everyone wants to know is what happened in Masi’s mind in the four minutes between the ‘lapped cars will not be passed’ message and the next one, which said ‘five lapped cars will be passed’ . ”

So how would Chandhok prevent a repeat of this incident? “If there’s an accident in the last six laps of the race, just do a red flag; then you will have an entertaining finish from a standing start. ”

And while it’s clear that this kind of drama is dearly needed in the sport, it’s also something that needs cohesive race direction, which both Chandhok and Wilson feel might be lacking now that Niels Wittich and Eduardo Freitas are alternating between races. “There’s going to be inconsistency, because there are two, ” says Wilson. “And then there will be complaints that there are two. There should be just one [for every race]. ”

Will the new Virtual Race Control Room –effectively F1’s version of football’s video assistant referee – help them arbitrate over any grey areas when penalties are being applied? Once again, Chandhok is cautious about the system’s efficacy: “I’m glad they’re trying different things, but it will slow the decision-making process. [The current five-person panel will be joined by a four-strong FIA panel to make rulings.] I have a bad feeling that they will say ‘we will investigate after the race’ . But for now, let’s give it the benefit of the doubt. ”

It’s clear, though, that everyone’s focus this season will be on the cars themselves, which now adopt ground-effect aerodynamic strategies not seen since the early 1980s, reducing the impact of ‘dirty air’ and increasing cornering speeds for following cars. Chandhok is certain that this will increase overtaking opportunities and improve racing. “Since 1998, this following problem has got worse. Last season, people were picking up a slipstream four and a half seconds out. In 2022, if you’re two to three seconds behind, it will be easier to follow the car in front; and when you get ◊

YOUR RUNNERS AND RIDERS

MERCEDES-AMG

Lewis Hamilton George Russell

RED BULL RACING

Max Verstappen Sergio Pérez

FERRARI

Charles Leclerc Carlos Sainz Jr

McLAREN-MERCEDES

Daniel Ricciardo Lando Norris

ALPINE-RENAULT

Fernando Alonso Esteban Ocon

ALPHATAURI-RED BULL

Pierre Gasly

Yuki Tsunoda

ASTON MARTIN-MERCEDES

Sebastian Vettel Lance Stroll

WILLIAMS-MERCEDES

Alex Albon Nicholas Latifi

ALFA ROMEO-FERRARI

Valtteri Bottas Guanyu Zhou

HAAS-FERRARI

After the FIA imposed a freeze on F1 powertrain development until 2026, Karun Chandhok believes it should rethink its future strategy. “We need to get rid of hybrids, ” he explains. “F1 cars are too fat and heavy now [the minimum has risen to 795kg]. The MGU-H [weighing 120kg] will never find its way on to a road car; it’s irrelevant. The FIA needs to say: ‘Formula E, you’re purely electric; sports cars, you’re developing hybrids; F1, you’re developing sustainable fuels. ’ So we will have a return to V10s and V12s that everyone likes to hear. F1 needs to drive the change for what’s coming in 2035, not in 2030. ” Δthrough six-tenths, you’re straight up there. They initially said that it was going to be 27% better. I don’t believe that will be the case, but I think it will be 10-15% better. The point is that if we didn’t do it, it would just get worse. And you know what? The cars look great; they look like a step into a new era. ”

An overall wheel-diameter increase from 13in to 18in and a far lower tyre profile have also been implemented, and Chandhok and Wilson foresee changes for both teams and drivers. “I’ve done a lot of testing with higher- and lower-profile tyres, ” says Wilson. “The higher profile is always lazier during cornering, but the lower profile will give it more bite initially, although the [car’s] weight will be transferred to the surface more brutally.

A softer movement behind the wheel – a tinier introduction of the steering – is going to help. ” Chandhok agrees and adds: “The wheels and tyres, I think, are collectively around 22kg heavier. The mechanics have had to get stronger; they’re struggling to do the pit stops as quickly as they used to. ”

Will the new cars change the dynamic of races and bring a fresh challenge for the front-runners? “I think you will still have that close fight with the midfield teams, like Aston Martin, Alpine, McLaren and AlphaTauri, ” says Chandhok, “but the gap between the haves and have-nots will get bigger in 2022. The cars have been drawn up based on theory, so those with the best wind-tunnel and CFD capabilities will have an advantage. However,

It will be 10-15% easier to follow, and the cars look great

2022 F1 CALENDAR

Sakhir, Bahrain Jeddah, Saudi Arabia Melbourne, Australia Imola, Italy Miami, Florida, US Barcelona, Spain Monte Carlo, Monaco Baku, Azerbaijan Montreal, Canada 20 March 27 March 10 April 24 April 8 May 22 May 29 May 12 June 19 June

Silverstone, UK 3 July

Spielberg, Austria

10 July Le Castellet, France 24 July Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium 28 August Zandvoort, Netherlands 4 September Monza, Italy 11 September To be confirmed 25 September Marina Bay, Singapore 2 October Suzuka, Japan 9 October Austin, Texas, US 23 October Mexico City, Mexico 30 October São Paulo, Brazil 13 November Yas Marina, Abu Dhabi, UAE 20 November Conversations about F1 these days are never subdued…

because there’s less flexibility in the rules, I think the have-nots will catch up quicker than before. ”

Technical changes aside, the hard-fought battle between two of F1’s greatest protagonists in recent years is set to continue, with Wilson seeing their psychological approaches to racing as the biggest differentiator: “Max [Verstappen] is slightly quicker, takes more chances. Lewis [Hamilton] is a brilliant driver, but mid-race, when he’s not winning, the call from him is always ‘what can you do for me?’ , whereas Max’s view is just ‘I’m going to go fast’ . Max wants to win, Lewis wants to finish first, and there’s a difference. ”

Chandhok concurs: “There’s a parallel between [Alain] Prost and [Ayrton] Senna and Lewis and Max. By the time their rivalry intensified in 1989, Prost had been in F1 for a decade. Senna was younger, hungrier and more aggressive. I see a lot of Prost in Lewis. He has become so methodical. ◊

DESIGNING, TESTING AND DEVELOPING AN ALL- NEW CAR

Pre-season testing is the first chance for F1 fans to see the new cars in action, but more importantly it’s the first chance for the engineers to see whether or not their ideas are the right ones. And this year that was even truer than it has been for four decades, due to the vastly different rules.

It’s never wise to read too much into testing lap times, as teams will test various configurations and fuel loads and push more or less than their rivals – or even ‘sandbag’ to hide their pace. The best insight you can really get is by watching and listening to the drivers, engineers and race crew – which I did in the Alpine garage in Barcelona a few weeks ago.

“I’d say the new cars all follow very similar themes, they’re just different interpretations, ” said technical director Matt Harman, who started work on the A522 in late 2018. “We’ve investigated an awful lot of options. We’ve done in excess of 2000 wind-tunnel runs, and inside each one is a multitude of options. But we don’t know where the other teams are. This is one of the biggest car changes I’ve seen in my career, and it’s interesting that everybody is very protective of their information; this past six months have probably been the quietest I’ve ever known in F1. ” Developing a car to entirely new rules has been a fascinating journey. “It has been quite unprecedented how we’ve gone through the cycle, ” said Harman. “The steps in aerodynamic points – the way we measure the load on the car – have come in big chunks. That’s good for a number of reasons. One reason is because measurement is more straightforward. You can see the flow structures with the systems we have on the wind tunnel. That gives you some confidence and allows you to really get into that correlation with CFD. ”

It might surprise you to learn that Alpine actually worked on multiple concepts at once to ensure that it was following the optimal one. Boss Laurent Rossi explains: “We developed several ‘branches’ , decided that one was the most promising and pushed hard on that. But on the other branches that were equally good or slightly less good, we decided to keep some elements. You can’t then decide to take some of the pieces here and put them there; it doesn’t work. But the good news is that if you start seeing things on other branches that you can’t adapt on yours, you may be able to adapt it on your second concept. Technically speaking, we shouldn’t be switching, because we’ve gained a lot of aero downforce. But you never know: someone else might have a ‘Brawn GP’ type of concept [the dominating double diffuser of 2009] and we have to follow up. ”

Back to Harman: “Because of the new rules, we’ve lost some of the pieces of ‘furniture’ on the car. Now we have less furniture and less detail but are getting the same effect. That has been our big key development – and that’s why there are a lot of different sidepod geometries out there. The old car was flat underneath and then off to the diffuser, whereas on this car we’ve replaced the bargeboards with a significant inlet. We have a venturi, too. It’s all about controlling pressures in those areas of the car. So fundamentally we spent time trying to achieve similar flow structures with less equipment. ”

“At the moment, the crux of the matter will be to correlate the track to the wind tunnel and CFD, ” says Rossi. “The wind tunnel is directional until the track says ‘yes, right setting’ . Once you align that, then you can ‘spit out’ new parts.

“We have a lot of innovations coming for the year. It’s going to be the rule of the game this year, in fact: all the teams are going to inject a lot of innovation. There is no real stat, but 70-80% of the time, the parts you see performing in the wind tunnel do perform on the track; and 20-40% of the time, they don’t. So we have a roadmap of what we want to put in the pipeline for the car, and then based on what we see works or doesn’t, we start to investigate. ” KRIS CULMER

Chandhok has no doubt the teams will have fixed the ‘porpoising’ problem seen at the first test by race one –“although it would have been controlled by active suspension” , banned since 1994.

Mercedes and Hamilton are less certain bets this year

He’s not bothered about getting pole any more. He sets it up to manage tyres and fuel. That’s all Prost. ”

Of the midfielders, the pair rate Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll. “Being at Ferrari those past couple of years was soul-destroying for Vettel, but he has rediscovered his mojo at Aston, ” says Chandhok. “It’s quite hard to judge [the team’s

performance] last year because the cars took a step backwards, with the aero rule change and the flow change. Their season was a mess, but 2022 will be an interesting year for them. ” Wilson believes we shouldn’t discount Stroll, either: “He’s becoming a very fine driver and is going as fast as Vettel a lot of the time. ” Chandhok also thinks that Ferrari has a real opportunity to turn the ‘big two’ into the ‘big three’: “Ferrari gets 10% more wind-tunnel time than Mercedes [based on championship placings]. They’ve not been in a title fight, so they’ve been able to focus their resources on 2022. It’s going to be a big year for them. ”

We discuss Haas and driver Nikita Mazepin. As a Motorsport UK board member, Chandhok supports the organisation’s stance on Russian licence holders in light of the invasion of Ukraine: “We’re effectively asking them to delink themselves from Russia, which is the right thing to do. ” Just two days after we meet, Mazepin and Russian title sponsor Uralkali are ‘delinked’ from Haas entirely, with Kevin Magnussen drafted in to take his place.

But although the team will surely benefit from the returning Dane’s talents, he’s unlikely to stir up the order more than a certain young Brit. “I’ve spent time with George [Russell], and I didn’t find him that different to Esteban Ocon, ” says Wilson. “He’s brilliant, but boy is he ruthless – and fast. ”

His style reminds Chandhok of Mika Häkkinen: “It is very minimalist, very deliberate. Whereas Max and Lewis will rotate the car on the brakes, George is all about angles and straight lines. ”

One thing is for sure, though: with demand for greater clarity about the rules and a return to chassis designs that should release not only a car’s but also a driver’s potential, 2022 will be an F1 season to remember – and hopefully for all the right reasons. L

For 2022, the graduated

THE KEY RULE CHANGES IN SUMMARY

POWER UNITS Development of the current V6 turbo hybrid powertrains has been frozen until 2026 in readiness for the introduction of a “sustainably fuelled hybrid engine” . AERODYNAMIC TESTING The sliding-scale differences in permitted wind-tunnel time have been made considerably bigger, to the benefit of the slowest team and detriment of the fastest. BUDGET CAP The baseline figure for a 21-race season has dropped by $5 million (£3.8m) to $140m (£106.6m). This “glide path” will continue with another $5m drop in 2023. WEEKEND FORMAT Two one-hour practice sessions will now happen on Friday, reducing the programme from four to three sessions (this doesn’t apply to the three weekends that host a Saturday sprint race). ROOKIE DRIVERS Teams now have to give a rookie (meaning a driver who has started no more than two grands prix) an outing in first practice at least twice during the season. WHEELS AND TYRES Diameter is up from 13in to 18in and tyre blankets can now heat tyres only to 70deg C (it used to be 100 front and 80 rear).

bandwidth between lower- and higher-placed teams for wind-tunnel testing has increased. Williams now has 35% more time than Mercedes.

WillMcLarenfinallyreturntothesummit?

McLaren exceeded expectations last season. Buoyed by a new customer engine deal with Mercedes-AMG that reignited a title-winning partnership, the team battled regularly for podiums, and Daniel Ricciardo led home Lando Norris for a sensational one-two in the Italian Grand Prix, ending a team-record barren run of 170 races. As such, it finished the year fourth.

Expectations are consequently high for 2022, especially with the team having long ago put a major development focus on the new technical regulations for this season. But there are no guarantees in F1. Remember Pastor Maldonado? The mercurial Venezuelan’s stunning win in the 2012 Spanish GP ended a record winless run of 130 races for Williams, and along with the team’s new customer engine deal with Renault (resuming a title-winning partnership), it seemed like the spark for a revival. Yet the team hasn’t won again since.

Now, Ricciardo is much better than Maldonado, but the truth is that progress in F1 isn’t always linear and can’t be measured by slightly fortuitous wins. So while he is optimistic, and with the team showing good form in pre-season testing, McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown is keeping expectations in check.

It’s a mantra that Brown has been pushing since he took over the position in 2016, during the team’s nadir with uncompetitive and unreliable Honda engines. “My first year was the worst year in the history of McLaren on track, ” he says.

His task since then has been to transform the culture and working methods of the storied team to the modern era of F1. He says his role has largely been to put the right people in place, such as team principal Andreas Seidl.

Brown says: “I really don’t run a racing team; I run a racing business. I’ve got experts to run the team. The trick is to get the best people you can, have an honest relationship with them, set goals and objectives and give good feedback. ”

So while last season’s race win was very nice, the key to sustained success is continuing to progress.

“Whoever is the fastest, we want to continue to get closer to them, ” says Brown of McLaren’s 2022 goals. “That’s our ultimate measurement: are we truly closing the gap to the front? We want to be running at the front on a regular basis in a couple of years, so the goal has got to be to continue to get more competitive every year. ” JAMES ATTWOOD

The ever-lowering budget cap on teams is “a fantastic idea” , says Alpine boss Laurent Rossi, “because you don’t throw money at problems any more. It’s a very different story. ” In a world of huge alloys, it always felt odd that F1 persisted with 13in wheels. That’s changing in 2022 as it embraces trendy 18in wheels with lower-profile tyre sidewalls. And that’s not the only change, as drivers who progress to the third and final qualifying session will no longer have to start the race on their Q2 tyre. As a result, you should see far more teams running the softest compound in Q2 in the hope of making it through to the shootout for pole.

Some things haven’t changed, though: Pirelli remains the sole tyre supplier and there will still be five compounds of slick available (C1 to C5; hard to soft). As before, teams will be given the choice from three of the five on any weekend, along with wets and intermediates. Each driver gets 13 sets of slicks per weekend.

The tyres are much taller now, so certain apexes will now be blind, and the tyre warmers are set at a lower temperature (this will further reduce year on year until electric blankets are scrapped from 2024). As such, the driver who can get his rubber up to working temperature the quickest will win a significant bonus.

Young Brit Norris and race winner Ricciardo will drive again for McLaren