re: Formula 1 2022 Preseason Thread

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The Haas car had some differences I noticed right away, but the RB18 looks like the F1 concept at first glance. I'm sure more keen eyes can spot the differences.

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There's a Youtube channel called The Race that I'm sure will have a good breakdown video up soon comparing it to the model car, I don't know how all that technical stuff translates to if a car is or isn't fast but I enjoy checking it out.

For example, in their Haas breakdown video they pointed out that the photos show a pushrod front suspension but noted that the rods seemed to just be halfass photoshopped in, leading them to believe that Haas(and perhaps Ferrari) will actually run a pull rod setup and were trying to hide it. Does that translate to a faster car? No idea, but they do a good job pointing on the things I'd never have noticed.

About 2" taller.

Also, some geometry changes to the front suspension this formula may make vision different as well.

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The larger tyres do affect the view of the driver, especially in tight corners. I was wondering if they would create any blind spots...

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Vettel was complaining about it last year:

https://www.planetf1.com/news/sebastian-vettel-2022-tyres-kerbs/

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“The big wheels make the view to the front even worse”

Visibility will be further hampered by a regulation that states the 2022 cars must have flow deflectors protruding over the front wheels which will make it more difficult for drivers to aim at the apex.

That was an observation Vettel made while sampling in the simulator how the 2022 car will feel to drive.

“With the covers and the big wheels, you can’t see the kerbs at all,” he said.

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I'm not ready to jump on the "they all look the same" train just yet. With these new regs no team is going to let anything slip that may tip their hand to an advantage. Treat these launches as livery reveals and don't expect to see the real cars until testing, and even still don't be surprised if some teams show up to race 1 with some fancy tricks.

The Haas was just a rendering and has some questionable bits to it, and seeing some crying online that the Red Bull wasn't much more than a liveried up model car. No one is tipping their hand.

I'll check that channel out.

Can we do a "what F1 related media do you follow?" post?

The Race Youtube Channel

Josh Revell He's funny, does a bunch of driver profiles, past and present. Some of my favorite content

McLaren A bunch behind the scene footage, their Unboxed Series they do after each race is cool

Missed Apex Podcast is also a favorite, they have a race review posted by the Monday morning after a race, lots of other good content too, Matthew Carter, former Lotus team boss is on occasionally.


Any others worth checking out?

Yeah, but that 1 on the nose looks slick and is a nice change

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Well, from what we've seen so far, it looks like the sidepods and the air intakes will look different, but the front and rear wings will look pretty similar among all the cars.

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In strict formula series where the cars have no need to be remotely similar to production cars, there is always a negentropic force that leads to homogenization of the grid. Where the formula dictates very similar power trains that produce horsepower and torque in a fairly narrow band and the curves are also fairly similar there is really one single solution that is best aerodynamically or at least the best one discovered at that point in time. Some things can't be changed quickly like wheelbase etc some other things are easier and quicker to incorporate.

So we may see some differences and out-of-the-box thinking but other teams will adjust their development in the directions that work based on the performance of other cars. Given enough time and development without changes in the rules, all cars will be very similar.

Also, wings are the easiest thing to mask in live pictures. They could easily show generic ones and attach the "real" wings at some point before the lights go green on the race season. Outside of the really poor teams I don't expect to see the actually car with all the trickery at the launch, even the poor teams will likely be obfuscating the truth as much as possible.

Apparently Horner's attempt at corporate espionage with the Mercedes factory tour is foiled by fine print:

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It is being reported terms and conditions for the Mercedes tour state “employees of other Formula 1 teams are not eligible to take this tour”.

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He added: “This is one time when I really think Michael Masi did the right decision to just allow the lapped cars to unlap themselves that were in front of the top five competitors and then to make sure the race was finished under the green, because this was the most anticipated race of the season from a beautiful season and for that race to end behind the Safety Car would have been a tragedy in my opinion, and this way created the excitement. It was racing and it was fair.

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100% agree with this.

They have rumors saying a lot of the new fans were mad at hoe it ended. I think that is BS, nobody watches F1 to watch the cars go slow and finish behind a safety car.

That was one thing nascar got right, the green/white/checker, no yellow flag finishes. Its harder because of the no refueling.

I think we'll find races gets red flagged quicker than before.