Lewis Hamilton’s return to social media for the first time since the 2021 F1 season finale, in a team promo video for the Chinese New Year, has fans speculating that the British racer will also return to the grid for next season – calming some fears of retirement. Now it’s the turn of his new team-mate to be in the spotlight, with George Russell joining Mercedes for this year – and Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko questioning whether he really has the race pace to cope at the highest level.
For Red Bull themselves, their No1 driver and reigning world champion Max Verstappen faced rumours of an exit earlier in the week, amid claims he could jump ship to rivals Mercedes. Red Bull of course denied as much, suggesting too much had happened between the teams for that to be feasible. All teams are now gearing up for the new campaign in their new cars, with more testing to come in the weeks ahead.
Here’s the very latest news as the new season prepares for the opening weekend in Bahrain on 20 March. Follow all the F1 news updates below:
F1 set to compromise and run just three sprint races in 2022
16:04 , Dan Austin
Formula 1 owners Liberty Media are set to compromise and run just three F1 Sprint events in 2022.
Sprint races were run for the first time in 2021, as the part of the Silverstone, Monza and Interlagos weekends, as part of an effort to increase track time and excitement in the sport. The format meant shifting qualifying to Friday evenings so that a second, shorter race could take place on Saturdays, with a small amount of points given to the drivers who finish on the podium. The final order of the sprint race then set the grid for Sunday’s Grand Prix.
F1 had wanted to bump the number of sprint races up to six for the new season, but concerns from teams over the increased costs involved in running their cars more often means that sticking with three is now the most likely option according to Autosport.
Albon to race under full Thai flag after WADA u-turn
15:48 , Dan Austin
Alex Albon will be able to run under the Thai flag on his return to F1 with Williams after the World Anti-Doping Agency opted to reinstate Thailand.
The nation was sanctioned after being found to have been non-compliant over anti-doping efforts, meaning the Thai flag would not have flown nor would its anthem have been played had Albon made it onto the podium in 2022.
But the u-turn means there are no longer any restrictions on Thai symbols in sporting championships, and dual British-Thai national Albon’s arrangement will be the same as it was during his previous stint in F1 with Scuderia Toro Rosso and Red Bull Racing.
Alpine restructure staff in effort to move up grid order
15:33 , Dan Austin
Alpine are restructuring their technical staff in an effort to move up the Formula 1 grid order, according to CEO Laurent Rossi.
Team principal Marcin Budkowski left the team in January and a replacement has yet to be announced, though ex-Aston Martin boss Otmar Szafnauer has been heavily linked with the position.
Pat Fry is being promoted from technical director to chief technical officer, while Matt Harman fulfils the vacated role.
Rossi said: “We are considerably strengthening Alpine F1 Team by having Pat and Matt at the helm of engineering in Enstone.
“Pat is one of the most experienced engineers in Formula 1, while Matt’s drive and expertise will prove critical in extracting the full potential of our race cars, thanks in particular to his unique expertise combining chassis and engine development.”
F1 cars 2022 release dates – full list
15:15 , Jack Rathborn
The 2022 Formula 1 season is just around the corner with the first race pencilled in for 20 March in Bahrain.
The end of the 2021 season proved to be one of the most dramatic in the sport’s history as Max Verstappen passed Lewis Hamilton on the final lap of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to snatch the title away from the seven-time champion.
It was a quite remarkable conclusion to a year which had it all – excitement, overtaking, drama, controversy and incredible performances.
Now F1 fans are ready to watch it unfold once again and are awaiting the unveiling of the 10 team cars for the 2022 season.
But when will the teams reveal their shiny new equipment for the upcoming season? Here is all you need to know.
© Provided by The Independent
F1 cars 2022 release dates – full list
F1 sprint races could be scrapped amid row with teams over money
15:05 , Jack Rathborn
Formula One sprint races could be axed from the calendar this year amid a row over money.
F1’s CEO Stefano Domenicali, and motorsport boss Ross Brawn wanted to double the number of shortened-format rounds – first introduced at last year’s British Grand Prix – from three to six in 2022.
But F1 is locked in dispute with a number of the grid’s front-running teams, understood to be Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari, who want to see the cost cap set this year at 140million US Dollars (£103m) – effectively increased to cover off the additional races.
© Provided by The Independent
F1 sprint races could be scrapped amid row with teams over money
New F1 rules likened by Ferrari to MasterChef
14:44 , Jack Rathborn
Piero Ferrari has likened the new F1 regulations to MasterChef.
Their vice-chairman, 76, who is the son of company founder Enzo, told La Gazzetta dello Sport: “To my friends who ask me to explain what has changed in the rules, I tell them it’s like MasterChef.
“They gave us the ingredients and then there is someone who cooks a delicious dish and someone less so.
“The rules have not been changed, they have been rewritten. I read them, but I really struggled to understand them.”
Haas set to unveil livery tomorrow
14:41 , Dan Austin
Haas will become the first team to reveal its 2022 F1 car livery in a digital event tomorrow morning at 11am.
The American-owned team has traditionally revealed a concept livery before fully unveiling its cars at pre-season testing each season since joined the sport in 2016, and looks set to do the same again.
A Russian-flag themed livery was run in 2021 after the team signed Nikita Mazepin and accepted a title sponsorship from his oligarch father’s fertiliser company Ural Kali, and a simialr design is likely to return again this year.
Hakkinen: Hamilton will retire when title shot fades
14:25 , Lawrence Ostlere
Lewis Hamilton will only retire from Formula One when Mercedes are no longer able to provide him with a winning machine, according to two-time world champion Mika Hakkinen.
Hamilton’s immediate future remains clouded in uncertainty following the controversial conclusion to last season’s title race.
The 37-year-old has not spoken publicly since the immediate moments after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on December 12.
It is understood Hamilton is awaiting the outcome of the FIA’s inquiry, launched after race director Michael Masi was accused of bending the rules to allow Max Verstappen to triumph following a late safety car period.
Masi’s own position is under intense scrutiny and there is a growing feeling that the Australian will not be in his post for the opening race in Bahrain on March 20. Hamilton’s plans could hinge on Masi’s future.
Hamilton’s Mercedes team will launch their new car – its first of Formula One’s new technical era – at Silverstone on February 18 with the opening winter test starting in Barcelona five days later.
The Silver Arrows have won the past eight constructors’ championships but their imperious form might not continue in the sport’s new era.
And Hakkinen has questioned whether Hamilton will see out his two-year deal, worth almost £40million-per-season, if Mercedes are not at the front.
“Lewis’ journey in Formula One has been really long and there are so many elements which will come into his opinion as to whether to continue,” said Hakkinen, who won consecutive titles with McLaren in 1998 and 1999.
“Lewis has the confidence. He has been winning, he has been on the top of the podium, and everybody has been looking at him like, ‘Wow, you are great’.
“He is thinking that it must continue this way, so this is going to be a very interesting year for him.
“The regulations in Formula One have dramatically changed. It is going to be a completely new machine and the chances are that the designers might not find an optimum machine. If that happens to Lewis it is going to be really hard for him to accept.
“If you have been at the top of the mountain and suddenly you have to climb back up the mountain because you don’t have the best car, it is going to be emotional for him to control.
“There are a lot of question marks surrounding Lewis. We don’t know whether he is coming back, but let’s hope he is.”
© Provided by The Independent
Lewis Hamilton’s contract with Mercedes expires at the end of next year (PA Wire) (PA Wire)
Six weeks to go until season starts
13:53 , Dan Austin
Formula 1 is set for the biggest season in its 72-year history over 2022 with 23 races planned at top class racing venues around the world.
The series has been on an expansion drive ever since owners Liberty Media purchased it from Bernie Ecclestone back in 2017, with focus placed on key financial territories including the Middle East and North America.
All but one of the tracks scheduled to host a grand prix in 2022 have done so far before. This season brings a brand new race in the United States onto the calendar in May, as the Miami International Autodrome makes its debut as the second US event alongside the Circuit of the Americas in Texas. The Florida venue will see drivers navigate 19 corners around the Hard Rock Stadium, home of NFL team Miami Dolphins.
You can check out the full calendar of races below:
© Provided by The Independent
F1 race calendar 2022: Full list of dates for every grand prix in biggest season ever
Chandhok says Masi was “screwed over” in Abu Dhabi
13:32 , Dan Austin
Karun Chandhok says Michael Masi was “screwed over” in the controversy at the Abu Dhabu Grand Prix.
The Race Director’s decision to allow only some lapped cars to un-lap themselves themselves essentially gifted Max Verstappen the world championship, and has led to strong criticism from fans, pundits and drivers alike.
“I think where he got a bit screwed over really is that the brakes [on Nicholas Latifi’s stricken Williams] caught fire on the car as they were trying to take it off the track,” the former HRT driver told the Daily Express. So the marshals had to jump on and get the fire extinguisher out obviously, that dumped a load of stuff onto the track. That, therefore, left Michael in a position of, ‘ah I’ve committed to this part of the Safety Car, now this has happened we have got to leave the Safety Car out for longer than I originally planned’. He couldn’t have red-flagged it at that point, because as per the procedure of the red flag you have to do an out-lap as well as a timed lap. So if he had red-flagged it, we wouldn’t have had a restart.”
F1 relaxes reprimand rules for 2022
13:12 , Dan Austin
Formula 1 is relaxing its reprimand rules for 2022, meaning five infractions are now required for a grid penalty to be enforced rather than three.
Reprimands are incidents which do not count as penalties, and fall into grey areas which the sport would prefer are avoided. Sebastian Vettel was given a reprimand last season, for example, for wearing a pro-LGBTQ+ rights t-shirt during the Hungarian national anthem.
Drivers now face a ten-place grid drop if they rack up five reprimands.
Ferrari chief compares rule changes to MasterChef
12:56 , Dan Austin
Ferrari vice-president Piero Ferrari has compared the challenge of building a Formula 1 car from scratch for a new set of regulations to contestants facing Gordon Ramsey on MasterChef.
The Scottish chef is a judge on the US version of the show and Ferrari said putting together a mix of raw ingredients is something cooking and car building have in common.
“To my friends who ask me to explain what has changed in the rules, I tell them it’s like MasterChef – they gave us the ingredients and then there is someone who cooks a delicious dish and someone less so,” the 75-year-old told La Gazzetta dello Sport. “The rules have not been changed, they have been rewritten. I read them, but I really struggled to understand them.”
Moto GP wants to avoid Abu Dhabi F1 repeat
12:39 , Dan Austin
The Moto GP boss Carmelo Ezpeleta says he would like to avoid a controversial end to a biking championship akin to the one which plunged Formula 1 into chaos at Abu Dhabi.
Mercedes protested the race result at Yas Marin after Max Verstappen won the world championship following FIA Race Director Michael Masi’s unprecedented running of the safety car, and Ezpelata says an intense racing battle isn’t worth it if it ends in such controversy.
“I would not like to have a MotoGP finish like the one in F1,” he told Marca.
“I wish there were two drivers fighting for the title in the last race, but the way the whole thing played out? Not for anything. It has been a fantastic championship, fought throughout the year and, in the end, has caused controversies that are not good. I like to have a championship, if it can be, until the very disputed end, but I don’t like that after the end they create doubt, that the runner-up doesn’t talk anymore. I certainly don’t dream about it.”
Capelli says Ferrari should treat drivers equally
12:23 , Dan Austin
The former Ferrari drivers Ivan Capelli says the Italian squad should forget about having designated first and second drivers and treat their current starts equally for 2022.
Charles Leclerc is one of the most highly-rated drivers in the sport and has taken two wins and nine pole positions for the team since stepping up from Alfa Romeo in 2019, impressing further by comprehensively beating Sebastian Vettel in his two seasons partnering the German.
Carlos Sainz replaced Vettel for 2021 and enjoyed an excellent debut season with the Scuderia, outscoring his Monegasque team-mate as he earned P5 in the drivers’ championship.
Now Capelli says the best way forward is for both to be treated evenly. “The team must make them start on par, then it will be the track that dictates the hierarchy,” he told Italian daily Gazzetta dello Sport. “Ferrari must start preparing itself for the management of two drivers with the same ambitions, the same desire and the same chances of winning.”
Alpine boss says team is prepared to “fail early”
12:07 , Dan Austin
Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi says the team would rather take risks and “fail early and learn very fast from it” than accept maintaining their position in the middle of the Formula 1 pack.
The French squad finished fifth in 2021 and has failed to challenge for the championship since it won two with Fernando Alonso in 2005 and 2006 in its previous guise as Renault.
Rossi says the team is determined to progress up the order now and is willing to take risks to do so. “It’s a question of changing a couple of things here and there,” he told The Race. “The culture of being okay with failing, but failing early and learning very fast from it, rather than being afraid of it and just trying to do a safe job, which will probably get you to P5 but you won’t explore the boundaries.
Hakkinen says Hamilton and Verstappen took “heavy risks” in 2021
11:51 , Dan Austin
Two-time Formula 1 world champion Mika Hakkinen says Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen took “heavy risks” in their intense fight for the 2021 title.
The pair made contact on track on multiple occasions and both were given penalties by the stewards for high profile incidents, including the crash on entry to Copse corner at Silverstone and the chaos at Jeddah when an order for Verstappen to allow Hamilton to re-take the lead ended in a slow speed crash.
“Is it my style to do things that those two drivers did? Not really, it is not my style and that is because I had a very bad accident,” Hakkinen said, according to PA News. “I spent a lot of time in hospital and I know the pain when things go wrong. These two drivers, they don’t know that, so they do take risks, very heavy risks, and they rely a lot on the safety of the car and the safety of the track.”
Fittipaldi backs Ferrari to be “faster at the start”
11:35 , Dan Austin
Double Formula 1 world champion Emerson Fittipaldi is backing Ferrari to be “faster at the start” of the 2022 season than the likes of Mercedes and Red Bull.
“They can be faster at the start,” the 75-year-old told Motorsport.com Nederland. “A team like Ferrari has been working on the new season for much longer. You don’t know, there can be many surprises.”
The former McLaren drivers does believe, though, that Mercedes and Red Bull will catch up soon enough even if they do start the campaign slightly off the pace.
“The bigger teams always have an advantage,” he added. “But other teams can be closer this year. I think it will be more balanced.
Mercedes faces “big challenge” with wind tunnel restrictions
11:18 , Dan Austin
Mercedes’ technical director Mike Elliot has admitted the Brackley-based squad faces a “big challenge” in the wind tunnel over pre-season.
Finishing first in last season’s constructors’ championship means Mercedes has is permitted less time in the wind tunnel to test their new car than any other team in the sport, as F1 allows teams more aerodynamics testing time the lower down the other they finish in an effort to narrow the spread of the field.
“The big challenge over the winter has been the fact we have fewer runs to use in the wind tunnel,” Elliott said in a video released on Mercedes’ website. “So that has been challenging, trying to work out how much we should have spent on last year’s car versus how much we should have spent on this year’s car. This had knock-on consequences all the way through the factory. In terms of design work, we start design work earlier on things like gearbox and chassis, particularly as the gearbox is fixed for a period of time. We have had to get that right.”
“A lot of optimism” about Ferrari engine, report says
11:00 , Dan Austin
Spanish newspaper Marca reports that there is “a lot of optimism” coming out of Ferrari regarding its upgraded engine for the 2022 season.
The Italian manufacturer put all their eggs in the 2022 basket long ago, focussing their development and resources on the long-term goal of being at the top of the competitive order for the new era of F1.
The combination of Ferrari’s spending power and their ability to write off the last couple of seasons in order to focus on 2022 has led many observers to believe they could be a serious contender once the seasons gets underway in Bahrain in March.
Haas and Alfa Romeo also run Ferrari engines, and could benefit enormously from a successful upgrade.
Full car launch dates for eight F1 teams
10:42 , Dan Austin
So, Red Bull will gets 2022’s slew of car launches underway next Wednesday 9 February after they announced earlier this morning they will precede Aston Martin by a day and become the first team to unveil their challenger for the new campaign.
All teams bar Williams and Haas have committed to dates when they will reveal the result of all their hard work, too. These are the dates as things stand:
9 February: Red Bull RB18
10 February: Aston Martin AMR 22
11 February: McLaren MCL36
14 February: Alpha Tauri AT03
17 February: Ferrari F1-75
18 February: Mercedes W13
22 February: Alpine A522
27 February: Alfa Romeo C42
Two teams yet to announce car launch dates
10:24 , Dan Austin
Eight Formula 1 teams have now announced the dates on which they will launch their 2022 challengers, leaving two still to go.
Haas and Williams have spent the past few seasons right at the back of the F1 grid and are hoping to take advantage of the regulation shake-up in order to fire themselves further forward.
Williams have made significant changes since being purchased by Dorilton Capital in 2020, including hiring Jos Capito as team principal and bringing in Alex Albon to replace the Mercedes-bound George Russell.
Haas, meanwhile, have the lowest budget of any team on the grid but have opened a new facility at the Ferrari HQ in Maranello, Italy.
McLaren will upgrade 2022 at first race
10:10 , Dan Austin
McLaren will bring their first car upgrade of the season to Bahrain for the first race of the 2022 campaign.
That means that the vehicle which contests the Grand Prix on 20 March will be a slightly different version to the one that undergoes pre-season testing at the same Sakhir International Circuit a fortnight previously.
“We know performance at race one is critical, and we’ll be delivering an upgrade package to that event, but we expect much more to follow,” said McLaren F1 operations director Piers Thynne on the team’s website.
Red Bull to be first team to launch 2022 F1 car
09:54 , Dan Austin
Red Bull will be the first team to reveal their new car for the 2022 F1 season next week.
The Milton-Keynes based squad has announced that their unveiling will take place on 9 February, one day prior to Aston Martin’s launch.
This year’s car reveals are some of the mostly highly-anticipated in the history of the sport, with a new set of regulations meaning vehicles will look significantly different to their predecessors and the competitive order of the grid could be shaken up.
Hamilton’s F1 return will be ‘emotional’ says Hill
09:39 , Dan Austin
Lewis Hamilton will find it difficult to continue in Formula One if his Mercedes car is not competitive next season, according to two-time world champion Mika Hakkinen.
Hamilton’s future in the sport remains in doubt following the controversial end to last season which saw the 37-year-old miss out on a record-breaking eighth world championship to Max Verstappen on the final lap of the year.
Hakkinen believes there remains a lot of “question marks” surrounding Hamilton’s future in the sport, and the competitiveness of his car next season could be a factor in his decision.
You can read the full story here:
© Provided by The Independent
Lewis Hamilton faces ‘emotional’ test in F1 return ‘to climb back up the mountain’
Mercedes star George Russell has race pace questioned by Red Bull
09:24 , Jack Rathborn
Helmut Marko is not yet convinced by new Mercedes addition George Russell when it comes to the most important factor of all in F1: Race day.
The young Brit has impressed in qualifying, showing consistency and control while with Williams, but Helmut Marko wants to see an improvement on Sunday sessions, as he told Autorevue.
“Now let’s see what Mr Russell will do at Mercedes and whether the praise he has received in advance is justified,” he said. “I want to see that first.
“There’s no discussion in qualifying, he’s sensational there but if you look at his race speed, he wasn’t far ahead of [then Williams team-mate Nicholas] Latifi.”
© Provided by The Independent
New Mercedes driver George Russell has race pace questioned by Red Bull
Max Verstappen took Red Bull car ‘over the limit’, team boss claims
09:21 , Jack Rathborn
Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has praised Max Verstappen’s drive to secure his first world title at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, saying the Dutchman pushed his car “over the limit” to snatch the win.
Verstappen passed Lewis Hamilton on the final lap of the Yas Marina Circuit to seal the Drivers’ Championship in dramatic fashion after the intervention of race director Michael Masi.
Marko has overseen Red Bull’s driver development programme since 1999, and helped guide Verstappen into Formula 1.
The 78-year-old hailed the world champion for both his driving talent and will to win, suggesting that Hamilton now knows he cannot afford to leave any space for the aggressive Dutch driver.
“You could see that [Verstappen] drove the car so over the limit, that was visible,” Marko said.
“And in the races, Hamilton should already know that you can’t leave the smallest gap open at Verstappen.
© Provided by The Independent
Max Verstappen took Red Bull car ‘over the limit’, team boss claims
Lewis Hamilton accused of wanting Michael Masi out in bid to ‘turn F1 upside down’
09:20 , Jack Rathborn
Lewis Hamilton has been accused of wanting to force Michael Masi out of Formula 1 and turn the sport “upside down”.
The seven-time world champion has not commented publicly on the end of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which saw Masi’s controversial intervention set up Max Verstappen to pass Hamilton and deny the Mercedes driver a record eighth title.
It has since been suggested that Hamilton is considering retirement as he awaits the FIA’s report on events at the Yas Marina Circuit, which could see Masi stripped of his race director role.
Dutch racing driver Jeroen Bleekemolen believes that Hamilton will be back on the grid when the 2022 season starts in Bahrain in March.
However Bleekemolen also thinks that Hamilton’s influence is such that changes will be made, warning that “some people will disappear”.
© Provided by The Independent
Lewis Hamilton accused of wanting Michael Masi out in bid to ‘turn F1 upside down’
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