formula one
The 2022 F1 season is just around the corner, and Haas has beaten everyone else to the punch with its new livery
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So whatever your views on what happened, the stakes are – to put it mildly – rather high.
Putting the gossip columns to one side for the moment, we’re now into that time of year where F1 teams begin revealing their new cars for the forthcoming season. And with the rulebook undergoing a massive shake-up this year, the new generation of designs should be fascinating.
Simplified aero, a return to ground effect, low-profile tires, wheel covers; all of these things are being introduced for 2022 in the name of closer, more exciting racing, which means teams have had to put their old ideas in the bin and spend Christmas coming up with entirely new ones.
F1 even made a mock-up design of what the new cars would look like (see the gallery above), remember?
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And then there’s the even tighter budget cap, which should make it much harder for the biggest teams to simply spend their way out of midfield mediocrity and leave the minnows at the back of the grid. Here’s hoping.
So, here’s a quick rundown of the new liveries being applied to this season’s carbon fibre, plus all the launch dates for teams that have yet to pull the trigger. Get those e-calendars synced to your electronic devices, folks.
Haas VF-22
Haas is the first team to reveal it’s challenger for 2022, although based on the team’s zero-point haul and 10th place finish in the championship last year, this will probably be the only time they’ll beat the rest of the pack to anything.
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In fairness, the team opted to effectively write off 2021 in a bid to make this year’s car as good as it can possibly be, and team boss Gunther Steiner says the VF-22 is the result of “a tremendous effort by everyone involved”. Let’s hope the engineering has more going for it than the, er, rather bland white livery.
These are the rest of the dates you need to keep an eye on. Stay tuned…
Red Bull RB18 – 9 February
Aston Martin AMR22 – 10 February
McLaren MCL36 – 11 February
AlphaTauri AT03 – 14 February
Ferrari F1-75 – 17 February
Mercedes W13 – 18 February
Alpine A522 – 22 February
Alfa Romeo C42 – 27 February
Williams FW44-TBC
The first three days of pre-season testing commenced in Barcelona on February 23, so unless the teams have found a way of lapping their cars underneath an ultra-fast shroud, we’ll have seen all the cars by then. Alfa Romeo, you’ll note, is launching its livery on 27 February, so expect them to be wearing heavy camouflage for the first shakedown in Spain.
A further three test days follow at the Sakhir International Circuit from March 10, a week before the season-opening race at the same venue in Bahrain. Until then, here are 10 things we’re looking forward to about the new campaign.
