As we saw in the first week of car launches, this year's crop may be one of the most visually different in years. This week brings some big hitters, in the form of Ferrari and Mercedes, but there were four in total. Here's some of the highlights...
Images: Mercedes/Ferrari/Williams/AlphaTauri F1 Twitter
Much like last week, this week showed that every team takes their own approach to both the new 2022 technical regulations as well as their car launches. We had AlphaTauri kicking things off on Monday, followed by Williams on Tuesday. The heavy hitters Ferrari and Mercedes came on Thursday and Friday, respectively, and each car launch had it's own quirks, not to mention the cars themselves.
AlphaTauri
AlphaTauri AT03
Images: Scuderia AlphaTauri
Well, much in the tradition of the Red Bull family, AlphaTauri showed us some renders of a car that is most likely not the final product. They even went so far as to render the car on a track to make it look more realistic. However, there was a bit more effort than their big brothers at Red Bull, as there are some non-standard parts of this car. Realistically, all we can infer from this is that the sidepods might be sloped down kinda like the 2011-2013 cars. Otherwise, the wings, floor, and most everything else is the base F1 show car. Sad.
I'm not sure that they can ever be wholly forgiven for ditching the incredible blue chrome Toro Rosso livery the team rocked from 2017-19, but of the three navy-and-white affairs the team have come up with, this is probably my favorite. The first car was too white, the second one was too navy, and this is a happy medium. Will it be fast? Who knows, but Pierre Gasly seems convinced he will be fighting for top fives regularly. Time will tell.
Williams
Williams FW44
Images: Williams Racing
In what has to go down as the most confusing car launch so far, Williams had a livestream on Tuesday morning in which they revealed their new look (more on that in a second) and presented an F1 show car. However, they promised that they would release pictures of their real car, the FW44, on track later in the day. Then, they had to delay this by a few hours after there were some teething issues with their car. They then released the pictures of the real car. But, what was the point of showing the show car in the morning, then showing the real car? Who knows.
Sporting their fourth consecutive new look (fifth if you count 2020 twice), the team has transitioned to a completely blue look. Well, on track it looks more indigo than blue, and there are about five different shades of blue on the car. Also, there is red for some reason. Team boss Jost Capito says it adds a British flair to the car, but most people would consider red to be more of an Italian note. The car looks decent enough, but it seems like it's kind of a mess, and there are notably few sponsors on the car. It seems like the marketing and design team had about four different ideas before they just said "let's do them all" and rolled with it. At least you can read the driver numbers clearly (Mercedes, Ferrari take note).
The Car
Williams did themselves some favors by releasing pictures of the car more or less from the front angle only, so it's not really possible to draw to many conclusions beyond the front angle. What we can see is that the team has a conventional suspension setup, a front wing that is probably the closest to the original F1 concept car, and large sidepod inlets. We can see that the nose is actually curved, so the whole car has a very early-to-mid 90s aesthetic.
There is some intrigue surrounding the sidepods, because the single shot of the car at an angle shows that they are extremely short. Obviously this opens up the area behind them and over the floor as much as possible, but it's not really clear how the team is taking advantage of all this empty space. Testing will hopefully shed some light on the situation and offer a clearer picture of the team's direction. This year is more or less the first year where the team has had the ability to develop its car without budgetary constraints in at least five years. Williams must continue to make progress as it has shown over the last two years, and it won't have its talisman in George Russell to rely on.
Ferrari
Ferrari F1-75
Images: Scuderia Ferrari
In what has to probably be the winner of launches so far this season, Ferrari was straight and to the point (even if the FIA tried to crash their party) and revealed a stunner. Free from the shackles of Philip Morris (who have dictated the Ferrari's look since 1997) the team have pretty much immediate reverted to the early 90s. OK, it's a red car. With black wings. but it does look really really good, and that's before you consider the technical aspects.
Mattia Binotto, everyone's favorite team principal, faces the real litmus test this year. He inherited a team in 2019 that was falling short on the car front, and was really only in the fight against Mercedes because of their creative interpretation of the engine rules. (Note; I still have absolutely no idea how they won the 2019 Singapore GP, which, admittedly, should have showed their chassis problems more than anywhere else, Perhaps Ferrari doesn't understand either, because they have been unable to repeat since). In 2020, they were no longer permitted to creatively interpret the engine rules, and suffered greatly. Sure, 2021 was an improvement, but 2020 was so bad that it really could not have been worse. 2022 Is the first year where he will have a real clean slate and also no more excuses for underdelivering relative to the expectations of the team and indeed the greater F1 fanbase.
The Car
Binotto teased 'lots of innovation' and exciting details on the new car. Well, on the face of it, they didn't disappoint. Other than their relatively conventional suspension, the car is fairly radical. Their nose forms almost to a point at the front of the car, and extends more than most of the field. They have a very heavily inboard-loaded front wing, meaning they plan on generating most of their front downforce closer to the center of the car than near the wheels. They have hidden a good bit of floor detail, so we can probably expect some novelties in that department.
The real eyecatcher is in the center of the car. Ferrari has the most radical sidepods I have seen on an F1 car since probably the 2011 McLaren. First, they are quite wide at the front, with the inlets being quite high and narrow. The sides of them seem nearly vertical (they're not) and extend pretty far outboard from the center of the car, as the team tries to force air out and around the car. The top surface is actually concave and is extremely unique. They have also used the new cooling "gills" permitted by the rules in order to minimize the rear outlet size. It's all very novel stuff. The team have already said that they could have made the car slimmer, but this was by choice, so let's hope it works out for them.
Mercedes
Mercedes-AMG F1 W13 E Performance
Image: Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team
The one everyone's been waiting for. The 2021 Constructors champions. The best team of the last 8 years. The return of Lewis. The arrival of George. The comeback of the Silver Arrows. Well, in a move that was as confusing as it was surprising, Mercedes launched their new car with a presentation on Friday, where they presented the real car, shortly before they were to run on track. However, they released some rendered images of the car which are clearly not the real car but are some bizarre variant of the car that the team had developed at some point in the fairly distant past.
As far as looks go; it's alright. It's better than last year's AMG stickerbomb effort, that's for sure. The Ineos red seems even more scarlet than normal, and is kinda distracting. It's nothing special. My biggest gripe is that you cannot read the numbers on the side of thecars at all. Look at the pictures above and tell me it's easy to see a 63. Come on, Merc, you're better than this.
The Car
Well, it's kinda what you might expect from Mercedes. It's very neat and tidy, with no standout aspects but lot's of little tricks that might stack performance such that the team is again looking to be in the hunt for the title. The front wing is not too radical, although it does have a shallower section near the nose, so as to allow for more air to pass through to the floor. The floor itself has a very detailed entrance, with a notable step (not easy to see in these photos, admittedly) and some clever interpretations of the floor rules. The wavy "lasagna" floor makes another appearance, despite being mostly dropped from the car when it was on last year's W12.
The middle of the car is interesting, with Mercedes using the front edge of the sidepod to deflect the incoming air outward, without having a gigantic sidepod, like the Ferrari or Haas. The engine packaging is quite similar to McLaren's, being as tight as possible. It's interesting to see how some teams (Mercedes, McLaren, Williams) want their car as suckered in as possible, while others (Ferrari, Aston Martin) prefer wide sidepods that force the air out and around, despite the fact that they don't actually need the sidepods to be that big. Time will tell, and very shortly, as testing at Barcelona is set to begin on Feb. 23...
Which team is the most intriguing so far? Discuss...
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