Ultimate Guide To 2022 F1 Season

With F1 gearing up for a new campaign, here is a full guide to everything that you need to know ahead of the 2022 F1 season.

From new technical regulations to driver changes to returning races, 2022 promises plenty of entertainment as the entire F1 paddock enters a new era of racing which aims to provide closer competition throughout the grid.

Pre-season also threw up more unpredictability in Barcelona, Spain, and Sakhir, Bahrain, with six different drivers topping the timesheet across all six days of running which adds further speculation as to how this season could unfold.

Max Verstappen meanwhile will start the season as defending champion but Lewis Hamilton will be fired up to chase revenge after a controversial denial of an eighth title in the 2021 season finale, whilst several other drivers will look to spring a surprise.

Now here is everything that you need to know in the ultimate guide to the 2022 season from teams and drivers to race calendar, plus rule changes and five important pointers on what to expect this season.

 

Teams and Drivers

Team	Drivers	Driver Number
Mercedes	Lewis Hamilton	44
	George Russell	63
Red Bull	Max Verstappen	1
	Sergio Perez	11
Ferrari	Carlos Sainz	55
	Charles Leclerc	16
McLaren	Lando Norris	4
	Daniel Ricciardo	3
Alpine	Fernando Alonso	14
	Esteban Ocon	31
AlphaTauri	Pierre Gasly	10
	Yuki Tsunoda	22
Aston Martin	Sebastian Vettel	5
	Lance Stroll	18
Williams	Nicholas Latifi	6
	Alex Albon	23
Alfa Romeo	Valtteri Bottas	77
	Guanyu Zhou	24
Haas	Mick Schumacher	47
	Kevin Magnussen	20

• Mercedes have promoted George Russell to their senior team after he spent three seasons on loan at Williams, where he has been replaced by Alex Albon who has joined on loan from Red Bull after sitting out the 2021 season.
• Alfa Romeo signed Valtteri Bottas to replace his Finnish compatriot, Kimi Raikkonen who retired from F1 at end of 2021. Antonio Giovinazzi meanwhile was dropped with F2 race winner – Guanyu Zhou graduating to F1 after cutting ties with Alpine Academy.
• Haas terminated Nikita Mazepin’s contract due to his family’s links to Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Kevin Magnussen consequently replaced Mazepin after a one-season hiatus.

 

Race Calendar 

Round	Race	Date
1	Bahrain Grand Prix	18-20 March
2	Saudi Arabian Grand Prix	25-27 March
3	Australian Grand Prix	8-10 April
4	Emilia Romagna Grand Prix	22-24 April
5	Miami Grand Prix	6-8 May
6	Spanish Grand Prix	20-22 May
7	Monaco Grand Prix	27-29 May
8	Azerbaijan Grand Prix	10-12 June
9	Canadian Grand Prix	17-19 June
10	British Grand Prix	1-3 July
11	Austrian Grand Prix	8-10 July
12	French Grand Prix	22-24 July
13	Hungarian Grand Prix	29-31 July
14	Belgian Grand Prix	26-28 August
15	Dutch Grand Prix	2-4 September
16	Italian Grand Prix	9-11 September
17	TBA	23-25 September
18	Singapore Grand Prix	30 September – 2 October
19	Japanese Grand Prix	7-9 October
20	USA Grand Prix	21-23 October
21	Mexican Grand Prix	28-30 October
22	Sao Paolo Grand Prix	11-13 November
23	Abu Dhabi Grand Prix	18-20 November

• Australian, Canadian, Singapore and Japanese Grands Prix are all set to return after a two-season absence due to the Coronavirus pandemic, meaning that Portuguese, Styrian and Turkish Grands Prix were dropped.
• Miami Grand Prix is making its F1 debut with the race set for 8 May at Miami International Autodrome.
• Saudi Arabia has moved from a December slot to late March and will follow Bahrain in an opening double-header.
• Monaco Grand Prix weekend has been cut from four to three days for logistical reasons and will form the second race of a double-header with Spanish Grand Prix for the first time since 2011 season.
• Russian Grand Prix has been dropped following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with the 17th round now set to be replaced in due course.
• Chinese Grand Prix was left off the calendar for a third consecutive season due to strict travel restrictions but is set to return in 2023.
• Qatar Grand Prix made its debut as a replacement race in 2021 but is on a one-year hiatus due to the country hosting 2022 FIFA World Cup.

 

Rule Changes

Race Direction

• Race Director, Michael Masi was sacked in February 2021 following the scandal concerning his handling of the final laps of 2021 Abu Dhabi GP, which led to an FIA Inquiry. Niels Wittich and Eduardo Freitas will now share the responsibility of Race Director role.
• Herbie Blash has been appointed as a permanent senior advisor as part of the new race direction team.
• FIA will introduce Virtual Race Control (VRC) to review stewarding decisions.
• Teams will be banned from lobbying race officials and radio conversations between teams and FIA are now prohibited from broadcast.

Technical Regulations

• Ground aero effects will return to F1 for the first time since being banned in 1983.
• Bargeboards have been banned as part of aerodynamic related changes, which includes a ruling that front wings must directly connect to nose cones.
• Bodywork must be coated in rubber to reduce possibility of parts flying off when cars are on track and causing disruption to sessions through mixture of yellow and red flags and safety cars.
• Exhaust system has been added to list of limited components that teams can use throughout a season before incurring a grid penalty for exceeding the maximum allowance.
• Pirelli will introduce 18-inch tyres from this season onwards which replaces the 13-inch tyres of recent seasons.

Sporting Regulations

• Sprint Qualifying will return but under the new singular name of ‘Sprint’ at three races with Sao Paulo the sole returnee from the original selection in 2021, with Emilia Romagna and Austrian Grands Prix now also hosting ‘Sprint’ races this season.
• Instead of the top three finishers in ‘Sprint’ races receiving points, the top eight finishers will receive points in the following order: 8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1. Pole position will however be accredited to whoever tops Qualifying on Fridays on those weekends rather than the Sprint winner.
• Safety Car will now be withdrawn from the circuit one lap after the instruction of allowing lapped cars to unlap themselves, rather than one lap after the last lapped car has unlapped itself per previous regulations.
• FIA has scrapped the rule that the top ten qualifiers must start on the tyre that they set their best Q2 time, meaning that all drivers will have free choice over their tyre selection for the start of every race.
• FIA have announced new points procedures for if a full race distance isn’t completed following the controversy surrounding 2021 Belgian Grand Prix;

– No points will be awarded if the race leader fails to complete two laps under green flag conditions.

– Should less than 25% race distance be completed, the top five drivers will be awarded points under the following points system (1st = 6 points, 2nd = 4, 3rd = 3, 4th = 2, 5th = 1).

– Should 25-50% race distance be completed, the top nine drivers will be awarded points under the following points system (1st = 13 points, 2nd = 10, 3rd = 8, 4th = 6, 5th = 5, 6th = 4, 7th = 3, 8th = 2, 9th = 1).

– Should 51-75% race distance be completed, the top ten drivers will be awarded points under the following points system (1st = 19 points, 2nd = 14, 3rd = 12, 4th = 9, 5th = 8, 6th = 6, 7th = 5, 8th = 3, 9th = 2, 10th = 1).

 

Five Key Pointers

• Expect plenty of changes to the pecking order throughout the season as teams adapt to the new technical regulations whilst bringing upgrades on various race weekends.
• Porpoising has emerged as a huge issue for several teams in pre-season testing, so getting on top of that issue will be key to unlocking lap time especially in wet conditions.
• Pirelli’s new 18-inch tyres will require adaption of driving style in order to be managed which could well prove key if drivers are forced to adapt their own racecraft to suit the tyres and new car designs.
• With new race directors and stewarding approaches in place following Michael Masi’s sacking, on-track discipline is also going to be crucial depending on how strict the rules are this season.
• Reduction in dirty air should enable cars to follow each other much closer than before so expect plenty of competitive racing and especially on the overtakes front in races.