2022 Formula 1 Thread

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Video--

Road to 2022: Setting the Scene for F1’s New Era
Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team: Our Year

https://motorsport.tv/embed/csGWlXeD...r-f1-s-new-era

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F1 confirms no fans, TV coverage at first pre-season test
By: Jonathan Noble
Jan 26, 2022, 6:47 AM
Formula 1 has confirmed the first pre-season test in Barcelona will run behind closed doors, and won’t feature live timing or television coverage.

While the dates for the first two-pre season tests had been agreed several months ago, the details of the runs in Barcelona and Bahrain had still to be finalised.

On Wednesday, however, F1 confirmed that its contract with both venues had been agreed, as it laid out the plans for the two three-days tests.

The Barcelona test will take place from 23-25 February, while the event in Bahrain will run from 10-12 March, ahead of the season opener on 18 March.

While there will be tremendous hype surrounding the first running of 2022 machinery at Barcelona, F1 is treating it as nothing more than a shakedown run – which normally take place as private events.

In a statement explaining the plan, F1’s official website said: “The first outing is a lower key, pre-testing track session at Barcelona on 23-25 February, allowing the teams to shake down their all-new-for-'22 cars for the first time in the same place.

“However, as is traditional with teams’ pre-testing-type events, the running at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya won’t feature live, race-style coverage or live timing, but will include content and best lap times at the end of each day.”
hile fans will not be allowed in, media and broadcasters will be in attendance at the event to provide news and updates, and teams will be able to post their own content on social media.

Furthermore, F1 will also distribute their own official content and updates at the end of each day.


While the decision to treat the Barcelona test like a shakedown will disappoint fans who have attended testing at the venue in the past, it is understood that the decision was made after prompting for teams to change pre-season running for 2022.

With the regulations having whittled down preparations to just a single official test from 2021, a push was made to expand running for 2022 because of the change of rules.

That move has been accommodated by adding the private test in Barcelona, which F1 and teams want to treat as nothing more than a shakedown for them to better understand the new car.

F1 wants to treat the second test in Bahrain as the official pre-season event – so it will feature the more regular live timing and television coverage, and will be open to fans.

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/f1...-test/7620852/

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So this is 22 in effect but relates to last season obviously.

This is yields a literal permanent asterisk on the Max title. Period!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/60160969

Formula 1's governing body is planning a new race-management structure in an attempt to avoid a repeat of the problems at last year's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

There is widespread acceptance across the sport that race director Michael Masi failed to follow the rules correctly during a late safety-car period in the title-deciding race.

That resulted in Red Bull's Max Verstappen passing Lewis Hamilton on the final lap to beat the Mercedes driver to the title.

Governing body the FIA has been seeking the teams' views on the matter.

The inquiry launched after Abu Dhabi is still ongoing and no concrete conclusions have yet been reached.

But sources have told BBC Sport that the FIA's plans are to introduce a series of safeguards that will leave the race director freer to make decisions in a calmer environment.


Many insiders admit that Masi made a series of operational errors in the closing laps at Yas Marina that were contrary to the rules and accepted protocols - and there remain serious questions about his future in the role.

At the same time, it has been accepted that the Australian was left exposed, isolated and under too much pressure in the final laps of the race.

A support structure is being planned for the race director, insiders say.

This is likely to include a barrier between that role and the teams to avoid the direct lobbying to which Masi was subjected from the team bosses of both Mercedes and Red Bull in Abu Dhabi.

Revisions to the operations of the stewards - who are independent of the race director and decide on penalties for breaches of the rules - are also being considered.
Will Masi keep his job?

Removing Masi and finding a new race director is a recommendation some of the teams have made to FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem, BBC Sport has learned.

Some senior insiders say they cannot see how Masi can credibly remain in his role into another season, arguing not only that Abu Dhabi fatally undermined his credibility, but that the errors he made there were merely the biggest and latest of a series over the course of the 2021 season and before.

And high-level sources say that the most likely scenario is that a new race director will be installed for the 2022 season.

However, there is far from unanimity on the matter. Other teams are said be either ambivalent as to whether Masi stays or would have no problem with it, as long as a more effective support system was put in place around him.

Red Bull denied that they had called for Masi to go. Ferrari said they were not aware of any such request. Mercedes, McLaren, Alpine, Aston Martin, Alfa Romeo and Haas were unavailable. Williams said it "does not believe it is for teams to decide FIA personnel".

The drivers' views on Masi remain unclear, although a number complained over the course of last season about the inconsistency of decisions, particularly in the context of some of the battles between Hamilton and Verstappen.

The FIA was unavailable for comment but Ben Sulayem said in a letter to FIA member clubs after his election that he "will take all the necessary decisions after examining the findings of the detailed analysis on this subject decided unanimously by the World Motor Sport Council meeting in Paris last 15 December.

"I will do so in complete independence, refusing any pressure from any quarter, in the sole interest of our sport."
Why is this a big deal?

The fallout from Abu Dhabi remains the single biggest topic facing F1 and the FIA.

The credibility of the sport has been called into question - the FIA itself has admitted it was "tarnishing the image" of F1.

And Hamilton, who is said to have lost trust in the FIA, will not decide whether to return to F1 this year until he has an understanding of the actions the governing body plans to take to address the concerns that arose during 2021 over race management.

There is a feeling that the FIA initially believed the furore over Abu Dhabi would die down with time.

But one influential senior figure told BBC Sport: "Anyone thinking this would go away has not realised the gigantic size of this event."

Where is the FIA's inquiry?

Ben Sulaymen has consulted with all the team bosses to seek their views on what went wrong in Abu Dhabi and what changes could be made to militate against a repeat.

The FIA's secretary general for motorsport and executive director of single-seaters Peter Bayer last week took part in a meeting of the teams' sporting directors, which the FIA says was part of the inquiry into Abu Dhabi.

Masi chaired the meeting, but insiders say he recused himself when the subject turned to the operation of the safety car in Abu Dhabi and the consequences and ramifications of that.

It was agreed at the meeting that, in future, the race director's actions have to be predictable - it was Masi's improvisations around and failure to follow the rules in Abu Dhabi that led to the outcry after the race.

Bayer is next expected to meet the F1 drivers to seek their views on Abu Dhabi and other matters, although no date has yet been set for this meeting.

Following that is a meeting of the F1 Commission - which involves the teams, the FIA and F1 - on 14 February, at which it is expected that the changes the FIA proposes as a result of Abu Dhabi will be discussed.
What is the fuss about

Hamilton lost out in Abu Dhabi after Masi over-rode the rules with regard to the operation of the safety car, having come under pressure from the bosses of the two title-contending teams.

Masi's motivation, it is said, was an apparent attempt to ensure the race did not end under caution. It had been previously agreed by the teams that, in the event of a late safety car, ending grands prix under racing conditions was a preferable outcome where possible.

But the result was that Masi failed to apply the rules correctly in two separate areas - over dealing with lapped cars, and in the timing of the restart.

In doing so, Hamilton, who was on course to win the race and the world title, was left a sitting duck on old tyres when the race resumed for just one final lap and Verstappen, on fresh tyres, passed him to take the race and the championship.

[ZCanadian]

https://f1i.com/news/431002-honda-to...ntil-2025.html

Red Bull motorsport boss Helmut Marko has revealed that Honda will continue its direct supply of engines to the energy drink company's F1 teams until the end of 2025.

The change of plan takes a significant burden off Red Bull Powertrains which was expected to fully take over Honda's engine program from 2023.

Following its official departure from F1 as a works supplier to Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri, Honda struck an agreement with Red Bull by which it would continue to produce and assemble its annual allocation of power units at its Sakura R&D facility in Japan.

It was also agreed that Honda would provide technical support to Red Bull on race weekends while the bulk of its UK personnel would transfer to Red Bull Powertrains in Milton Keynes.

However, while it was originally expected that Red Bull would take over Honda's power unit program from next year - including its intellectual property - for a three-year period running up to the start of F1's new engine regulation cycle in 2026, the Japanese manufacturer has now changed its plan.


The article goes on to explain the real reason from RB's perspective - not supplying engines until 2026 makes them a newcomer should Audi or Porsche enter F1 at that time, and RB Powertrains would be able to share in any concessions they might be afforded.

Also, I suspect some creative accounting to maintain the cost cap, but those rules must be so complex (what is and is not included if the team is also an engine manufacturer) that who knows...

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Originally Posted by ZCanadian

https://f1i.com/news/431002-honda-to...ntil-2025.html

Red Bull motorsport boss Helmut Marko has revealed that Honda will continue its direct supply of engines to the energy drink company's F1 teams until the end of 2025.

The change of plan takes a significant burden off Red Bull Powertrains which was expected to fully take over Honda's engine program from 2023.

Following its official departure from F1 as a works supplier to Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri, Honda struck an agreement with Red Bull by which it would continue to produce and assemble its annual allocation of power units at its Sakura R&D facility in Japan.

It was also agreed that Honda would provide technical support to Red Bull on race weekends while the bulk of its UK personnel would transfer to Red Bull Powertrains in Milton Keynes.

However, while it was originally expected that Red Bull would take over Honda's power unit program from next year - including its intellectual property - for a three-year period running up to the start of F1's new engine regulation cycle in 2026, the Japanese manufacturer has now changed its plan.


The article goes on to explain the real reason from RB's perspective - not supplying engines until 2026 makes them a newcomer should Audi or Porsche enter F1 at that time, and RB Powertrains would be able to share in any concessions they might be afforded.

Also, I suspect some creative accounting to maintain the cost cap, but those rules must be so complex (what is and is not included if the team is also an engine manufacturer) that who knows...

RedBull are not an engine maker. More to follow. Ferrari are not at all pleased Redbull may be given some accomodation. Its a joke. Honda have not left. RedBull simply built them a nice base. Thats it. Idiocy.

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https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/ri...honda/7734284/

Rivals downplaying impact of 2022 F1 fuel, says Honda
By:
Jonathan Noble
Co-author:
Ken Tanaka
Jan 30, 2022, 5:46 AM
Honda believes that other Formula 1 manufacturers are deliberately playing down the difficulty all of them are facing in recovering power lost due to a switch to more sustainable fuel.


As part of the rules overhaul for this year, F1 is demanding that cars use E10 fuel – which is a mixture of 90 percent fossil fuel and 10 percent ethanol.

The change has been widely expected to trigger a drop in power, but there have been suggestions from manufacturers that they have managed to recover all of those losses.

But Honda’s Yasuaki Asagi, who previously led development of the Japanese power unit and remains involved in the revamped project, is sceptical about that.

Speaking to Autosport about how much power will be lost for 2022 because of the change, he said: “That's a secret.

“It seems that other companies say it's about the same but, on the contrary, making such an announcement means that it's difficult to get the same power as last year."

Asagi said that the challenge of the new fuel had not been easy, although there were some hidden benefits from the change.

“The response to E10 fuel is the largest [challenge],” he said. “The engine architecture had already been set (with the new 2021 power unit) so we have made changes to bring out the best performance with E10 fuel.

"When it comes to E10 fuel, the power and energy that it has with the same weight are reduced. That is the characteristic of alcohol fuel.

"On the other hand, the abnormal combustion (knocking) of the old fuel will be easier to control now.

"We are aiming for maximum efficiency, but with E10 fuel, the power of the engine will also decrease and the amount of power generation will also decrease."

Asagi confirmed that much of the work on the 2022 power unit had been set in stone at the end of last year.

"There are always small details and corrections if there are problems, but if you hadn't finished the concept or the basics by the end of last year, you would not be in time for the season."

[danegrey]

So much drama and the season has not even started

[Hotrodz]

LOL, and the FIA is keen on keeping the drama going all the way until the beginning of the race season. It is their fault that all the controversy has taken away from Max's championship.

Also, there was no way Honda was going to step away from red Bull. They want a constructors championship.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

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https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/me...to-21/7772402/

Video Link - https://motorsport.tv/embed/Cl11psde...ions-explained


Mercedes expects 2022 F1 cars to offer "relatively similar" performance to '21
By: Luke Smith
Jan 31, 2022, 11:37 AM
Mercedes technical director Mike Elliott believes Formula 1 cars will offer a "relatively similar" level of performance this year compared to 2021 despite the overhaul of the technical regulations.

F1 teams will unveil their new cars in the coming weeks ahead of the 2022 season that offers the most significant change to the rulebook since the start of the V6 hybrid era in 2014.

The aerodynamic regulations have been revised to allow for more wheel-to-wheel racing on track by reducing the impact of dirty air, while fewer technical freedoms have been afforded in a bid to create closer on track competition.

The cars will also be heavier than in 2021, as well as switching to new 18-inch wheel rims.

The regulations were originally expected to slow the cars down by a number of seconds per lap compared to the outgoing 2021 designs.

But the expected time loss has been falling as teams have completed more simulations and made more progress over the winter to regain performance.

Speaking in a video published by Mercedes explaining the changes to the technical regulations, Elliott said that he did not believe there would be a huge change in the outright performance of the cars between 2021 and 2022.

"The overall performance of the new cars is probably not going to be very different from the old [ones]," Elliott said.

"Obviously the intention of these regulations was to try and improve overtaking, and it will be a little bit of time before we can see whether that's actually happened.

"The car is a bit heavier, the power unit on the E10 fuel is going to perform slightly differently, and the way the aerodynamics are going to work and the set-up of the car that goes with it will be different as well.

"Until we get the best out of that, until we've developed that through testing and the first few races, we're not really going to know.

"But overall, I suspect the performance will be relatively similar to last year."

upload_2022-1-31_16-32-57.png

FIA head of single-seaters Nikolas Tombazis said at the end of last season that he thought the time loss would be "quite close" to the 0.5 seconds that had been speculated.

"I don't know for sure because it will depend on tyres, it will depend on how much power they find on the engine as well, and the driveability part of the aerodynamics," said Tombazis.

"I am afraid I can't give an answer to that. But it's going to be in the ballpark, I think."

Mercedes will unveil its new car for the 2022 season, the W13, on 18 February, and is expected to complete an initial shakedown with the car at Silverstone as part of the launch.

Rumours emerged in recent days that Mercedes had failed a crash test with part of the new chassis, but the team has since clarified that its car passed the FIA's homologation process on 13 January.

[God-Speed]

Just FYI!!

[God-Speed]

Team Haas Car for 2022.

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So a PU freeze and electrical system freeze as well.

Video - https://motorsport.tv/embed/XBzjC84u...o-a-new-f1-era

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/me...t-run/7926547/

Mercedes “absolutely desperate” to see 2022 F1 power unit run
Mercedes HPP boss Hywel Thomas says his engineers are “absolutely desperate” to see how their latest Formula 1 power unit behaves in the new W13.
Adam Cooper
By:
Adam Cooper
Feb 6, 2022, 8:30 AM

Manufacturers have had to adjust their PUs to suit the different cornering characteristics of the 2022 cars, as well as having to deal with the change from E5 to E10 fuel.

In essence, the 2022 aerodynamic package means that this season drivers will be tackling corners in a different manner to previous years, and the PU suppliers have had to make changes to ensure optimum power delivery.

Thomas says HPP has done a lot of homework in conjunction with the chassis team in Brackley, but is ready to make further changes after early testing with the new cars.

“The 2022 car is very, very different,” Thomas said in a team video. “We know the aerodynamics are different.

“And from all the things that we've been told and from all the work we've done with the team here at Brackley, we believe that the car will be doing slightly different things, and the requests from the driver will be different as they go through the corners than they were in previous years.

“We've got simulations, we've done all our calculations, and we've modified the engine and the way that the engine drives in order for us to be ready.

“And we'll be able to react to when the driver puts the power on perhaps in a slightly different way, perhaps at a slightly different time.

“Of course, we're absolutely desperate to get to the first track test so we can see if those simulations are correct. Hopefully they will be.

“If not, we'll be ready to adjust the PU as necessary to make sure that the driver gets exactly what they want when they ask for it.”
A mock up of Mercedes 2022 F1 car


Thomas added that the new rules have given Mercedes an opportunity to re-think packaging and optimise the installation around what works best for the chassis designers.

“Every year we take a look at the power unit and the way that it sits inside the chassis in order to give us the best lap time,” he explained.

“With 2022 being an all-new chassis, what that means is that we have an opportunity to look at everything again.

“There are areas on the car which will be very sensitive to lap time. And there'll be other areas in the car which are less sensitive. And what we're trying to do with the PU is to make sure that we stay as far away as we can from the sensitive areas to give as much flexibility as possible for the car designers, and to package the parts of the PU into areas where there's less sensitivity.

“So what that means is working hand-in-glove with the chassis department, and with all those engineers, to make sure that the PU fits in exactly where it needs to, to make sure we can make the fastest overall package.”

Thomas stressed that the PU performance freeze that will last until 2025 provides yet another challenge.

“The PU has a frozen performance spec. And what does that mean? It means that from the start of 2022 until the new PU, which we're expecting to come in 2026, the performance of the engine is frozen.

“And from midway through the year, the performance of the electrical systems is also frozen from a performance perspective. So what that means is we will not be able to bring performance upgrades during the year. It'll only be possible to do reliability upgrades.

“So with the new fuel, the freeze to performance of the PU over the course of the season, and the whole new car, the whole new aerodynamics and fitting the PU within it, there is a huge challenge for everyone involved, and especially team up in HPP.”

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https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/th...rules/7956486/

The simulation tools that have given F1 confidence over 2022 rules
Formula 1 fans may be full of excitement for the new car designs that will roll out this week, but the true answer about the success of the 2022 rules is still some way off.

By: Jonathan Noble
Feb 7, 2022, 5:46 AM

As Haas technical director Simone Resta said on Friday after the reveal of his team's VF-22 images: "So far everyone has been playing with models, whether it is a wind tunnel scale model or whether it is virtual model, simulator, simulation etc. It's all in the virtual world. There's nothing on track.

"The only thing that matters is on track performance with the drivers. We really need to see how the package will work, how it will interact with the tyres, how it will interact with the setup, etc.

"We can only be able to judge and improve the following once we will be able to stay one second behind another car in a fast corner, and understand how the delivery will be if compared to 2021."

Resta's cautiousness is based on the times that the FIA and F1 chiefs have pushed on with bold rule changes to improve the spectacle, only for them to fall flat when the cars ran in the real world.

One of the most famous examples was the 2009 regulation overhaul that was aimed at tidying up the aero of the cars to help them follow each other better.

The FIA's work on simulating airflow turbulence left Formula 1's chiefs hopeful that the tweaks would work; but the teams scuppered things by over-riding the intention of the rules through their quest for performance.

The way the team's aero panned out actually disrupted the wake in such a way that it made it difficult for the cars to follow each other.

As the FIA's current head of single seater matters Nikolas Tombazis, who worked for Ferrari at the time, said: "The rules were just full of so many freedoms that within a few weeks of windtunnel testing, and obviously I was sitting on the other side of the fence [working for a team], we had totally negated all the good things that had been thought of."

As F1 heads into a much bigger rules shake up than even 2009, there is a much-increased level of confidence among its management about how the regulations will deliver.

And the basis of that has come from F1 and the FIA having done much more work themselves on framing the regulations than was ever done before.

Perhaps more crucially, though, F1 was able to call upon technology that was far in advance and much more powerful than anything that teams are allowed to use themselves.

So rather than being at the beck-and-call of teams trying to help out in their own spare time, F1 was on the front foot and much further down the park working by itself.

That was because of a partnership that F1 has with AWS, using its cloud technology to run CFD simulations that reduced the average time of runs enough to give F1 and the FIA a huge edge in framing the rules.

As F1's lead engineer Rob Smedley told Autosport: "It has somewhat revolutionised and transformed the way that the FIA were able to write the rules."

What was critical for F1 and the FIA in its research was being able to run two cars together, for only then can the full impact of air disturbance be analysed to work out what was needed to let them run close.

The complexity and processing power of doing that was beyond what teams could deliver in a realistic timeframe, which is why the AWS solution has proved to be such a game-changer.

Smedley explains: "The key technological barrier was that we needed to have a CFD simulation with two cars.

"A CFD simulation with one car, if you run that under the team's aerodynamic test restrictions, then that half car with something like 200 cores is around about five hours.

"And just to geek out for a minute: that's about 100 million cells within that simulation. When you go to a full car, you get up to about 200-250 million cells. So using the 192 cores of the team's simulation, that then puts that full car up to 14 hours.

"If we wanted to use that same technology and computational power within the teams, then a two-car simulation with double the number of cells gets you to 550-600 million cells - and that would be four days.

"So when we first set off on this journey, it was four days to do a single iteration. It's just something that's prohibitive. It's a barrier to the research and development needed."


F1 knew it needed to find another solution, which is why the AWS offering proved such a benefit in drastically cutting down the time it took to do runs.

"I think the first iteration was spinning up in their EC2 service, at 1000/1100 cores, and version two, we're up to about 2500 cores," continued Smedley.

"It got that design iteration down from four days to around about six to eight hours.

"We were back to the same situation of where the teams are when they do a half car, and we were doing full two car simulations.

"The progress there in terms of tech was massive. That was enabled by us partnering with AWS and they were the real enablers and the key ingredient there to make that work.

"But the point was we had to get the simulations and the iterations done at a fast enough speed. That design loop was as fast as we could go in order to keep up and be able to write the rules in a way that we have."

Can a 2009 repeat of teams wrecking the intentions of the rules be completely ruled out then?

Smedley, having enjoyed a lengthy career that included spells at Ferrari and Williams, fully accepts that the way teams approach the rulebook is not with the same mindset as the regulators.

So he's aware that competitors will probe grey areas in the chase for performance, and that could scupper F1's best intentions. But he doesn't think they will.

"Certainly the concept, the aerodynamic architecture of what we're trying to create here with a semi ground effect car and an upwashing wake, that is undoubtedly the direction that we needed to take if we wanted to reduce the effect of the wake on the car behind.

"So, from a theoretical or a scientific point of view, there's no doubt that the concept is fundamentally sound.

"The fundamental truth is the teams will chase performance as quickly as they can, in whatever direction they can, and it's possible obviously that they will find performance, which is unhelpful to the car behind - and they won't go out of their way to stop that."



That unpredictability of how the teams will approach the regulations and potentially derail F1's best intentions means Smedley is not foolish to guarantee that the 2022 rules will work perfectly.

But he says there is a degree of confidence about the starting point, and that if improvements need to be made, F1 can respond.

"I think that's the beauty of F1. If you knew all the answers right now and we sat down and we've worked it all out, certainly for me and for people like me, F1 would become quite boring.

"It's like Ross Brawn always says, we can't hope to get it right first off. But let's have a look to see that we've made a step forward.

"And if we've made a step forward, and then there's more fundamental steps we can take after that, after one year of learning in 2022, that's great.

"Let's continue to do that and let's just continue to build a better sport."

[God-Speed]

Red Bull for 2022.

[abm89]

These car launches are jokes. I'll wait for the testing images to surface.