2022 Car Launches and Livery Thread

[airshifter]

Being the first one is tomorrow, might as well start the thread now. Though HAAS is openly stating that it won't show much more than the livery, I kind of expect all the teams to be doing that this year. With the regs changes nobody wants to show off any tricks they found in the grey areas of the regs. In all fairness, I think very few tricks will be visible this year, other than the entry to the underside of the car.... and that won't vary as much as a lot of stuff has over the years probably.

Everyone announced now other than Williams. I hope that is just because they are still working their tails off and not as worried about showing a car that doesn't resemble the race car much anyway.


Haas – February 4

Red Bull – February 9

Aston Martin – February 10

McLaren – February 11

AlphaTauri – February 14

Ferrari – February 17

Mercedes – February 18

Alpine – February 21

Alfa Romeo – February 27

Williams – TBA

[airshifter]

It looks like Haas has shown more than the mock up car the FIA made, though no doubt it will change more. They pushed the sidepod mass forward to about the limits of the design constraints, and though seeming legal, probably not what the FIA was hoping for in terms of looks. Some altered images of the reveal renderings also show a beam wing in the rear, the rear brake exit, and a few other goodies.

The front wing from the front is also not the mock up car wing by all appearances, and seems to have grown to the outer limits of height toward the center area of the wing. The curves in the wing seem to want the downforce in a very specific area, and avoid it near the nose and in front of the wheels.

Good stuff..... I hope the others remain interesting in design and unique enough to give us some real idea of what they will look like on track.

[Zico]

All I'm going to say is... If they look anything like the Haas, its a thumbs up from me.
I'm not really a fan of the increasingly vast multitude of aero devices we have had in F1 years, so a far cleaner looking, more sculpted car would be much more up my street.

Its maybe a bit early to know what they will end up looking like but what is the general consensus here... I'm not happy they are still so big.. and also heavier.. but do you agree that they will lijely look better and that its a really positive step overall if it does even half of what they are hoping to achieve?

[airshifter]

I hope the new cars have a cleaner look as well. Sometimes all the little aero devices are distracting, even if it is amazing the lengths they go to in attempts to control airflow. With the newer regs requiring some tighter packaging, I expect far fewer of those strange little devices in most cases.

With RB being the next reveal, it will be interesting to see if they show their hand at all, or display something based on the FIA models. We'll see in a few days.

[airshifter]

RB has already made statements that what we will see won't be the car that shows up at testing, which won't be the car that shows up at the first race. At least they will come out and just say it like it is, and I expect most teams to follow suit.

And just in case anyone hasn't looked, most of these reveals will stream live on some platform.

[Bagwan]

I'm not so sure I like the look of the wing structure above the front wheels .
It seems like these things are going to be flying debris at some point .

[airshifter]

Bagwan,

I don't think they will be all that bad. As the demo car shows, they won't have any major protrusion out over the tire, and attachmnt points are to the inside. The only thing that would rip them off would likely be something going over the wheel itself, and usually in that case things have gone bad already. Overall there should be a lot fewer small bits subject to launch on car contact or a heavy curb hit, which is a good thing IMHO.

[airshifter]

As expected, RB showing no tricks at all with their supposed reveal. I find it funny that even though they made this public, people are upset that they are even calling it the RB18. I don't think they have done anything other than maybe some really minor changes to the display car... barely.

There is still Honda branding on the car, thought subtle. After all the back and forth it appears that the engines will continue to be made in Japan and Honda will retain all the IP secrets. For now they are holding their cards close due to rumors of possible changes with Porsche/Audi involvement in the sport. Only time will tell if that happens or not.

[Bagwan]

Bagwan,

I don't think they will be all that bad. As the demo car shows, they won't have any major protrusion out over the tire, and attachmnt points are to the inside. The only thing that would rip them off would likely be something going over the wheel itself, and usually in that case things have gone bad already. Overall there should be a lot fewer small bits subject to launch on car contact or a heavy curb hit, which is a good thing IMHO.

Point taken on "things have gone bad already" , but I'm seeing trouble coming from curb hits as I can't quite imagine how they'll be able to completely stop them from slapping the top of the tires when a driver gets it just slightly wrong .
It's probably fortunate that they will be running the 18 inchers , as it seems more workable with less movement out of the tire , itself , but it looks to me to still be a hard ask to keep them in place on all the cars out there .

I do like the look of less furniture on the cars though .

But , it looks more like a moveable aerodynamic device to me than does a mass damper , for example .
It doesn't look like "open wheel" racing .

[Zico]

I've seen a few people mention on YT that these cars are just liveried up mock ups of the same 3 that the FIA produced and are not actual real chassis, that just doesn't sound right though, surely not..


Do you guys think they will have to be driven a bit differently being ground effect cars.. ie; much less kerb taking?