With a new season upon us and a whole host of changes descending upon the landscape of Formula One, it’s fairly safe to say that anybody without prior knowledge of the racing world would struggle to wrap their head around the rules and regulations of this particular branch of motorsport.
In this article, I’ll be giving a brief overview of everything that will be, or has been changed going into the 2022 F1 season.
Rules and Regulation Changes
Perhaps the biggest and most pivotal changes coming to Formula One this season are the alterations to the car. With a brand new design and a focus on improving wheel-to-wheel action on track, the fundamental aspects of the car have been completely restructured.
According to the official F1 website, the car had been redesigned to ‘allow closer racing – with the potential for more overtakes a happy, but secondary benefit’.
People have been sceptical about the appearance of the car and how it would perform on the track. But if one thing is for sure, these cars will only get better as the season goes on, potentially eclipsing the speed and manoeuvrability of the now-retired 2021 cars.
Driver Line-up
Without question, the most important part of Formula One is the drivers. And without a competent driver behind the steering wheel, you can’t expect a team to get especially far. Heading into the 2022 season, a number of changes have been made with a number of drivers retiring or moving to another constructor.
The move that is on everybody’s mind is George Russell finally getting his seat at Mercedes, alongside 7-time world champion, Lewis Hamilton as he aims to take his eighth against a strong Max Verstappen. It seems Russell could provide the support to Hamilton that Bottas failed to provide throughout this most recent season.
The team that has seen the most change is Alfa Romeo. Left with no drivers after both Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi left for pastures new. Fortunately, the constructor managed to sign budding F2 driver Guanyu Zhou from Virtuoso racing and caught the Mercedes hand-me-down, Valtteri Bottas to complete their line-up.
With Russell moving to Mercedes, Williams were left with an unfilled seat. There was a lot of speculation as to who the next driver would be with the likes of Dan Ticktum, Valtteri Bottas and Nico Hulkenberg being mentioned. But to the delight of Formula 1 fans, ex-Red Bull driver Alex Albon was named as the second driver for the Oxfordshire-based team. Hoping to bring new life into a well-established team who haven’t seen much luck recently, Albon is a welcome addition to the Williams lineup pleasing both the team and fans alike.
The 2022 Calendar
The 2022 Formula One calendar is set to be one of the longest the sport has ever seen. With the addition of a number of brand new circuits; some still in development, the teams will be using more air miles than ever before, travelling to 21 countries for a total of 23 races.
Obviously a calendar year in any motorsport would not be complete without the inclusion of the iconic circuits: Silverstone, Monza, Spa-Francorchamps and Monaco. These tracks will once again play host to Formula One as they have done for many years now.
This year, two new circuits are being added into the roster. We were fortunate enough to see one in action during the 2021 season with the drivers racing around the newly-completed Jeddah circuit in Saudi Arabia. This made for a nail-biting race with a number of incidents and so many safety cars that one would think the race had a speed limit. Despite peoples’ concerns regarding the possibility for action this track would create, it’s safe to say that everybody’s looking forward to revisiting this track again, next year.
The other new track being added is a brand new street circuit in Miami. Situated around the Super-bowl Stadium, very little is know about this circuit just yet. No doubt, with it being set in the Floridian city, this track could make for some fantastic photo opportunities. Let’s hope that it can create some equally good racing highlights.
Tom Leyland Sports Journalism 