Well, if the first major week of F1 car launches have taught us anything, it's that the fears that the new 2022 cars will be identical are completely unfounded. And, that not every team interprets the term 'car launch' in the same way...
Images: Aston Martin/Red Bull/McLaren
Red Bull
Image: Oracle Red Bull Racing on Twitter
Well, this happened. The 2021 World Driver's Championship-winning team took the stage first to unveil their new 2022 challenger, the RB18. Except, they did not unveil the RB18. Instead, they unveiled a show car created by and provided by Formula 1 (specifically, the cars used by F1 Authentics that are available for promotional use) which contained, unsurprisingly, a livery that looks an awful lot like the liveries we've seen from the team over the last few seasons.
This time, there was one key difference. The absolutely massive Oracle logo plastered along the side of the car, signaling the arrival of the American tech company as the team's primary title sponsor. The reported price for this branding change? A rumored $500 million dollars over 5 years, in what is one of the most lucrative sponsorship deals in all of motorsport. Of course, Red Bull says the partnership also has technological benefits for the team, who apparently use the company's software for data management, analytics, and strategy permutations.
The real problem here is that Red Bull walked out on stage and said "look, this is the RB18" when everyone in that room and looking at the car over the livestream knew that it wasn't. Personally I found it a little bit insulting that they really believed that the car they presented could pass as their own, when many times before teams have stated "this is a livery launch, you'll see the real car in testing" and just tell it like it is.
Aston Martin
Images: Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team on Twitter
After the exceptionally low standards set by Red Bull, expectations were low going into the Aston Martin reveal. However, the team really delivered in a slick, short, and well-done presentation of their actual new car, the AMR22. No trickery with a showcar, no digital-only releases of a heavily edited car (although they did amusingly release renders in which the suspension was clearly asymmetrical, which was obviously wrong), this was the full Monte. And she's a looker. Out with the BWT pink that rimmed last year's machine, the new car looks fabulous, even if the livery isn't exactly the most complex thing in the world. Also, the team have an additional secondary title sponsor in Saudi Arabia's Aramco, which allows the team to hold the title of possibly the longest team name in modern F1 history; Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team. Try saying that one fast.
The Car
The car itself if surprisingly different, with a notably higher nose than we have been used to seeing from recent cars, along with a very interesting take on the sidepods and engine cooling. The team have square sidepod inlets, something not seen on an F1 car for many many years, and have a unique philosophy they've adapted around that area.
Moving backward, the sidepods are extremely undercut, meaning air coming towards them can pass between the bodywork and the floor in order to reach the rear of the car with the least disturbance. This means that all of the internals must be mounted higher up on the car in order to allow for this channel, which can raise the center of gravity. Obviously the team will be hoping they can find more aerodynamic performance that will overcome this mechanical deficiency.
Also worth noting is the fact that the team have been the first to openly embrace the new cooling vents permitted along the top of the sidepods, with the team maximizing the number of vents allowed. The goal here is to allow the hot air from the engine and other internal systems to exit higher up, away from the floor and diffuser at the rear of the car.
Impressively, the team have already run their car in a shakedown session at Silverstone, allowing the team to go through and ensure that any unexpected teething problems are less likely to show up at testing in Barcelona.
McLaren
Images: McLaren F1 on Twitter
In what was the most ambitious of all the launches, McLaren decided to launch its 2022 Extreme E, Indycar, Esports, and F1 teams simultaneously. The pinnacle of the event was, of course, the launch of the 2022 MCL36 that the team will run this year. While having clearly more integrity than Red Bull, McLaren revealed it's actual 2022 car, but withheld quite a few key areas of the design.
The Car
McLaren knows that the most important and possibly interesting area of the 2022 cars is the floor and underbody. As a result, McLaren decided to cover their floor and underbody on their real car unveiled in the flesh, and also edited the digital renders. Therefore, it is meaningless to try to glean anything from the pictures on that front.
What we can see are some very interesting sidepods, which are almost completely opposite in design or philosophy from those shown by Aston Martin. McLaren has essentially zero sidepod undercut, with the side of the car appearing perfectly vertical when viewed form the front. This is because McLaren would rather have the air go around the car than try to force it to go through a channel or designated undercut area. It will be interesting to see if McLaren or Aston Martin's concept proves more effective, or if they produce about the same result through different means.
Mechanically speaking (which is not my expertise, I'm more of an aero guy myself), even I can see that McLaren has gone for a vary different suspension approach. Usually in F1, there are two suspension philosophies; pullrod or pushrod double-wishbone setups. Each has their own advantages and disadvantages (which I'm not going to go into detail about here, just know that, basically, there are two schools of thought).
For the last few years, every single car has had a pushrod setup at the front of the car, and for even longer, every single car has had a pullrod setup at the rear of the car. This includes what we saw from the Aston Martin. However, McLaren have gone for a pullrod setup in the front, and a pushrod setup at the rear. Technical director James Key himself has admitted that it is a departure from previous seasons, but that the new rules provided scope for changes to the overall suspension concept. It remains to be seen if this is change (I'm not gonna call it a risk, yet) pays off, and if any other teams follow suit.
Looking ahead, next week brings the most action packed reveal week yet, with Alpha Tauri, Williams, Ferrari, and Mercedes all set to debut their new machines. Which has been the best looking so far? Which are you looking forward to most? Discuss below...
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