Formula 1: key changes made to the 2022 F1 car

1. WHEEL & TYRES

We’ll start with the most obvious and visible changes which are the much bigger wheel & tyres, F1 has adopted 18-inch Low profile PIRELLI tyres which will be fitted into the car, the size of the rim that changed, adding five inches to the diameter making the tyre look wider, five new compounds grades will be available with three chosen for each race weekend to ensure maximum performance and consistency, we’ll get to discuss this further & dipper in another article.

2. THE 3D FLOOR

The traditional flat floors are gone, The new 2022 floor is equipped with Venturi tunnels, these tunnels help to reduce what’s known as a ground effect, with the new floors the new generation of F1 cars have much more downforce in high-speed corners as they are able to cling to the road better than the old machinery. Introducing these tunnels underneath the car becomes a lot less susceptible to dirty air from the leading car, which means the cars can get closer on track and should result in a lot more overtaking and better racing and a lot of excitement for us the fans.

Another thing the new 2022 F1 floor rules have is no RAKE, there’s no clear difference in the incline between the Front and rear part of the 2022 F1 car, this change doesn’t play a major role in performance, actually, if the RAKE was to still be implemented it would compromise the seal around the new floor.

Another thing is how teams are addressing the design of their floor edges, in the designs we have the CUTS, CURLS & RIPPLES which have adorned the new 2022 F1 car. for example, Mercedes has adopted the RIPPLE design which helps the team to replicate the effect with a continuous shape thus manipulating what the air is doing beneath

3. SAFETY IMPROVEMENTS.

The Hallow was well thought out, is one of the safety measures that are there, and in 2022 we have more safety features the most obvious of this is the long nose of these cars, the idea of the nose is to help the car to withstand much higher forces in a frontal impact

The sides are also designed to withstand slightly higher forces on a side impact as well, now in a heavier accident, the car is designed to break apart so that the power unit and the rest of the car are able to separate not exposing the fuel cell in a way that could be extremely dangerous just like what we saw with Romain Grosjean in 2020.

4. THE F1 POWER UNIT.

It is one if not the most important part of the F1 car, in the 2022 season not much change has been made to the power unit, the biggest change is the type of fuel that goes into the V6 engine the fuel type is an E10 meaning 10% of the fuel comes from biological sources and its the second generation of fuel meaning those biological sources do not come from food crops but from waste crops making it very sustainable.

5. THE REAR WING.

The rear wing got a brand new look in the 2022 season, the new wing is curvier and wider compared to the 2021 rear wing. Also, the 2022 rear wing is equipped with a DRAG REDUCTION SYSTEM(DRS), this is an adjustable flap that will be placed on the rear wing in order to reduce drag, the DRS is basically an overtaking aid, but drivers can only use it in designated DRS zones that are set before the start of the race weekend

To sum it up,the 2022 season is all about making racing closer and we can evidently see it on the tracks, clearly, a new error has arrived for Formulae 1 and the future is most definitely bright for motorsport.