Formula 1 2022 | Pre-Season Thread

[Bram Hengeveld]

Use this forum thread to discuss the 2022 pre-season. Share your thoughts about:

• new rules and regulations
• new and current drivers
• the season calendar
• the teams
• your predictions
• etc

F1 2022 Driver Line-up​

Alfa Romeo
Valtteri Bottas
Guanyu Zhou

Alpha Tauri
Pierre Gasly
Yuki Tsunoda

Alpine
Fernando Alonso
Esteban Ocon

Aston Martin
Sebastian Vettel
Lance Stroll

Ferrari
Charles Leclerc
Carlos Sainz

Haas
Mick Schumacher
Nikita Mazepin

McLaren
Daniel Ricciardo
Lando Norris

Mercedes
Lewis Hamilton
George Russell

Red Bull Racing
Max Verstappen
Sergio Perez

Williams
Nicolas Latifi
Alex Albon

F1 2022 Calendar​

Round	Grand Prix	Circuit	Race date
1	Bahrain Grand Prix	Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir	20 March
2	Saudi Arabian Grand Prix	Jeddah Corniche Circuit, Jeddah	27 March
3	Australian Grand Prix	Albert Park Circuit, Melbourne	10 April
4	Emilia Romagna Grand Prix	Imola Circuit, Imola	24 April
5	Miami Grand Prix	Miami International Autodrome, Miami Gardens, Florida[g]	8 May
6	Spanish Grand Prix	Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Montmeló	22 May
7	Monaco Grand Prix	Circuit de Monaco, Monaco	29 May
8	Azerbaijan Grand Prix	Baku City Circuit, Baku	12 June
9	Canadian Grand Prix	Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montréal	19 June
10	British Grand Prix	Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone	3 July
11	Austrian Grand Prix	Red Bull Ring, Spielberg	10 July
12	French Grand Prix	Circuit Paul Ricard, Le Castellet	24 July
13	Hungarian Grand Prix	Hungaroring, Mogyoród	31 July
14	Belgian Grand Prix	Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Stavelot	28 August
15	Dutch Grand Prix	Circuit Zandvoort, Zandvoort	4 September
16	Italian Grand Prix	Monza Circuit, Monza	11 September
17	Russian Grand Prix	Sochi Autodrom, Sochi	25 September
18	Singapore Grand Prix	Marina Bay Street Circuit, Singapore	2 October
19	Japanese Grand Prix	Suzuka International Racing Course, Suzuka	9 October
20	United States Grand Prix	Circuit of the Americas, Austin, Texas	23 October
21	Mexico City Grand Prix	Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Mexico City	30 October
22	São Paulo Grand Prix	Interlagos Circuit, São Paulo	13 November
23	Abu Dhabi Grand Prix	Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi	20 November

Over to you!

 

[Jan Larsen]

Mercedes
Lewis Hamilton
George Russell

Dont be so sure of that. I foresee a shocking but short silly season ahead in the first part of the new year...

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Dont be so sure of that. I foresee a shocking but short silly season ahead in the first part of the new year...

That would be a big loss to the sport. In case of HAM leaving who do you reckon should replace him?

 

[Jan Larsen]

Thats the big issue - I dont see anyone able to replace him tbh. Hulk is too old and has been out of the game for too long, anyone else are contractually obliged. Bottas would be an obvious choice but would require Alfa cooperation (which I doubt) and Bottas willing to do it (which I doubt aswell). Magnussen and Grosjean has recent experience, but they're only used to drive shitboxes around and are contractually bound. Vandoorne would probably be the most sensible choice but that is a MASSIVE ask and quiet frankly, I dont think he'd be up for it. Ocon perhaps?

 

[Neilski]

I've no idea what will happen this season (including whether I'll find the motivation to watch any of it ) but I'm certainly waiting with interest to see what happens with Lewis and George.

Ever since George wowed us all when Lewis was unable to race, a lot of people (me included) have formed the view that he'll quite likely beat Lewis on track. I do think it'll be because George is exceptional rather than because Lewis is merely very good. However, if it happens, it would give soooo much ammunition to the people who have said for years "it's just cos Lewis has the best car" that I have been wondering for several months if Lewis will indeed not participate next season at all. Choosing to race and then being unable to beat George could be seen to devalue his legacy.

I hope he does stay though - it should make for some fantastic racing between him, George and Max, and ideally a few more if some other teams find themselves competitive.

 

[Benutzername]

Dont be so sure of that. I foresee a shocking but short silly season ahead in the first part of the new year...

Reddit is in pre season mode already: Lewis Hamilton unfollowed everyone, that can only mean ONE thing ;D

 

[xnorb]

I can just hope that the new aero regulation allows real racing without this stupid DRS again. Give them a Push to Pass button if that's what people want, but the fixed DRS zones need to go.

With all those changes, i really hope the backmarkers are able to catch up and we'll get really nice fights every race. As F1 is all about budget and the cars, i can't imagine Red Bull or Mercedes dropping back (although McLaren and Williams too were once dominators...) but who knows - with all those changes and limited research resources for the top teams...

If Lewis stays in F1, i can already see them both pushing each other off track.
I can't imagine Russel being the submissive 2nd driver Bottas was.

Still disappointed that Zhou's money made it into F1 instead of Piastri's talent.

 

[JayOTT]

I can just hope that the new aero regulation allows real racing without this stupid DRS again. Give them a Push to Pass button if that's what people want, but the fixed DRS zones need to go.

The current plan is to keep DRS for now, since a reduction of dirty air also means a reduction of slipstream. But there are talks of removing it eventually if the new regulations prove to be effective.

In the interim, I do hope this allows the sport to dial back how many DRS zones each track has. Remember that when it was introduced in 2011, the first six races only had one DRS zone. Out of those six, all of them except Monaco would have a 2nd DRS zone added in later years, with Albert Park even getting a 3rd zone. 3 eventually became a relatively common number of zones for a track, as organisers would cram a zone onto anything resembling a straight.

This however would be overkill for the 2022 cars, so perhaps they should go back to the original 2011 DRS concept and have just one zone per track.

 

[Antony Snook]

One of the things i do not like in the Modern eara is like Peter Winsor is saying they are trying to sanitise the racing with stupid rulles. Cant drift wide exiting turn's (But they all do it, the cars got so mutch grip) Cant weave or block ect. The problem is the chassis and airo that makes passing hard. Because teams streamline the back of the car in a reversed airo affect that makes dirty air behind to upset a car behind in the slipstream. Hopefully the new package will fix this but there is a tug of war with the regulations and restrictions in it and desingers who are all about maximising the cars performance. This problem has been around scince the ealy 90's. Yet evrey year the FIA claim to fix it with more restrictions that teams learn how to work around. Sometimes bending the rules to do it. But its a highly competitive game, and if you are not pushing the envelope you are going backwards.

 

[BillyBobSenna]

I am betting Lance Stroll takes Hamilton's spot at MB and becomes 2022 champion. They can put some chump in the car next to Vettel.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

The new cars are in

https://twitter.com/x/status/1478418556509470731

https://twitter.com/x/status/1479158875811192835

https://twitter.com/x/status/1479045328481390593

https://twitter.com/x/status/1478770267392458756

 

[PickABetterUsername01]

Reddit is in pre season mode already: Lewis Hamilton unfollowed everyone, that can only mean ONE thing ;D

Lewis loves to be in the spotlight, in my opinion all this social non sense is just to get attention, make everyone believe he doesn't believe in the sport anymore, that he was treated unfair and etc. Then he will comeback, maybe under certain conditions, as someone that doesn't give up, for the sake of those things he defends, against a system that needs to be more inclusive and all that.

To be honest I don't care if he comes back or not, specially if all this crap I just said actually happens. They could put Bottas again in Merc, nobody cares really, and Piastri could get a spot at Alfa, since Zhou's money isn't going anywhere...

 

[Kindly]

Regarding Lewis, he is one of the greatest drivers ever. So F1 is better with him in my opinion.

That said, I don't feel Mercedes lost the drivers' championship due to Masi. They also lost it, in part, to agreeing rule changes to their detriment when they were on top, turning up less prepared in preseason, making a series of team and pitstop errors, and comparing themselves to Verstappen as opposed to racing their own race calmly. Their car was fine by Brazil.

The whole last lap scenario in Abu Dhabi is a bit like when Norris stayed out in the wet too long for track position at Sochi when he was in first. Nothing more, nothing less. Hamilton capitalized on being second in that scenario and didn't seem to have a problem with the unfairness of sudden last lap change.

In general, weather, and safety cars, and racing too close detriments the race leader if they prioritise track position.

Safety car rules probably can be enforced more clearly and consistently and the FIA can do better to not change the goalposts, in a variety of scenarios, but it wouldn't be the first inconsistency that needs solving in F1.

For example, a traction control option and less spray so they can race in Spa in the wet, overtaking regulations that don't allow squeezing and pushing contact off the track of any kind in order to achieve pure racing, less raised sausage danger kerbs, more gravel at dangerous run off, more penalties for not slowing immediately during yellows or trying to gain advantage off the track during crashes and risky areas, etcetera...

As for the cars themselves, perhaps try not being about computer adjustments on steering wheels. Maybe be more robust to take a kerb.

Rant over.

 

[Sasha Jednak]

Related to latest rumors, no words, just a bit more of...

 

[BillyBobSenna]

Unless F1 comes out and admits they screwed up, I hope Lewis walks away in protest. I think it is embarrassing to the sport how the season ended.

 

[RedBull48]

I like many others am disappointed Oscar Piastri did not find a starting drive this year. I mean he has won F4, F3, and now F2 titles in each of the last 3 years. What else are you honestly supposed to do? Sure I understand Zhou has money from China and such but he certainly has not been a standout over his last 2 years in F2. Dumb politics at play per usual. I really hope Audi / Porsche join the sport and can add two more seats to the grid.

 

[Neilski]

I like many others am disappointed Oscar Piastri did not find a starting drive this year. I mean he has won F4, F3, and now F2 titles in each of the last 3 years. What else are you honestly supposed to do? Sure I understand Zhou has money from China and such but he certainly has not been a standout over his last 2 years in F2. Dumb politics at play per usual. I really hope Audi / Porsche join the sport and can add two more seats to the grid.

Surely you aren't suggesting that it's not totally thrilling to watch mediocre pay-drivers going around a track?

 

[RedBull48]

Surely you aren't suggesting that it's not totally thrilling to watch mediocre pay-drivers going around a track?

I know we are all in the same boat, was really hopeful that cost cap may help on that front to some extent which it may do in time. Sad reality is motorsport will never be completely about talent as it's just so damn expensive.

 

[Kindly]

I agree winners of feeder series could do with more credit. I'm also interested in seeing how Albon does at Williams.

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

That would be a big loss to the sport. In case of HAM leaving who do you reckon should replace him?

Ocon or de Vries. I know Ocon have no more ties to Merc, but I can still see that happening so Alpine can bring in Piastri.