Explained: Why the FIA has sacked both of F1’s 2022 race directors.
Niels Wittich and Eduardo Freitas shared the race director role in 2022, after Michael Masi was sacked at the end of the previous year.
13 January 2023
by Jack Devonport
Formula1News

The FIA president has now suggested in a recent interview that neither Freitas or Wittich will continue as race director in 2023, claiming that he believes that there are always better options out there being trained by the FIA.

But what caused Wittich and Freitas to lose their jobs? There are two major incidents from last season that can be pinpointed to explain why two new race directors will be appointed ahead of next season. The Japanese Grand Prix saw Freitas sidelined from his role after a recovery crane was deployed onto the track in extreme wet conditions, before the drivers had returned to the pitlane.

Not only was the extremely dangerous, but it was also at the exact circuit where Jules Bianchi tragically lost his life after colliding with a recovery vehicle. As for Wittich, the US Grand Prix in Austin proved to be the nail in the coffin as his handling of Fernando Alonso’s accident with Lance Stroll was nothing short of shambolic.

‘FIA has sacked both of F1’s 2022 race directors’;

https://formula1news.co.uk/explained...ace-directors/


Mercedes’ ‘chain reaction’ of errors cost 0.3-0.4s at start of F1 2022
Friday 13th January 2023 2:00 PM
Toby Miles
PlanetF1.com

Mercedes’ 2022 title challenge was doomed before it began, after one dodgy data set sent the W13 down a losing path, according to the German team’s technical director. Drivers up and down the grid were complaining of porpoising issues but the Mercedes men seemed to have the worst, brain-rattling ride – with Hamilton leaving the cockpit in particularly severe pain after the Azerbaijan GP.

That’s when the spotlight turned to Mercedes’ radical commitment to a slimline sidepod design. The Silver Arrows had gone in search of more downforce but ended up bouncing along the straights, forcing them to carve away at the floor and sacrifice performance. In the impossibly complicated business of constructing an F1 car, even a fractional mis-step can cost positions. Mercedes technical director Mike Elliott explains: “What we were aiming for with the car, we had that going for us initially,” the British engineer told Motorsport.com.
“Then something came out of a simulation that moved us to go in a slightly different direction with the car. “It’s easy in hindsight to shout ‘if we had made a different decision at that point, we would have finished in a completely different position’. But that there was something wrong with the data was just very hard to see at the time.

‘Chain Reaction’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/merced...enths-f1-2022/


2022 Hindsight: The Mercedes AMG F1 W13
12:18 Wed, 11 Jan 2023
By Stewart Mitchell
Racecar Engineering

Mercedes AMG F1 had a rude awakening to the new era of Formula 1 in 2022. Mike Elliott, the team’s technical director, explained the challenge and how the team approached the problems and looks ahead to the future.

‘It’s easy to say we had a tough time when we went through the eight previous Formula 1 world championships, winning them all, and we’re no longer in that position,’ says Mike Elliott, technical director of Mercedes AMG Formula 1, on the team’s 2022 performance.

‘We’re bound to think it’s not brilliant. However, looking at a wider context, the 2022 regulations intended to mix up the field and improve the show. In that way, Formula 1 achieved those outcomes.’

‘2022 Hindsight’;

https://www.racecar-engineering.com/...es-amg-f1-w13/


Mercedes surprised F1 2022 concept loophole was only found by them
Friday 13th January 2023 8:30 AM
Jamie Woodhouse
PlanetF1.com

Mercedes expected to be alone with their unique zero-pod design for the W13, but not in finding the loophole that led to it.

The 2022 Technical Regulations presented all the teams with a blank sheet of paper when it came to designing their challengers for the start of this new era, and Mercedes, on a run of eight Constructors’ titles in succession, went off the beaten path with their solution.

Largely eliminating the traditional sidepod area and leaving only narrow inlets, Mercedes’ innovative design for their W13 was termed the ‘zero-pod’ concept, a design which certainly sent early shockwaves through the paddock.

‘F1 2022 concept loophole’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/merced...cept-loophole/


Alfa Romeo targets quicker rate of F1 updates after mid-2022 slump
Jan 12, 2023, 10:05 AM
By: Luke Smith
Motorsport.com

Alfa Romeo is targeting a quicker production rate for its updates in Formula 1 this year to avoid a repeat of its mid-2022 slump compared to its midfield rivals. Alfa Romeo benefitted from being the only team that had got close to the weight limit under the new regulations, allowing it to pick up 51 points in the opening nine races courtesy of Bottas and rookie teammate Zhou Guanyu.

Between the British Grand Prix at the start of July and the end of the season, Alfa Romeo scored just four more points - the lowest tally of any team. Alfa Romeo head of trackside engineering Xevi Pujolar felt the shift in the pecking order came ahead of the summer break, coinciding with teams making weight savings and bringing update packages more regularly that meant it "looked like we were falling backwards."

"Close to the shutdown, probably their rate of development or the rate of bringing packages to the track, it was a bit higher than our one," Pujolar told Motorsport.com. "I think we were developing at the same rate, but we were not able to produce at the same rate. And that's what we have seen, our packages arrived a bit later. For sure, now, our aim for next season is to try to bring or speed up on that side, to be more aligned with the competition.”

‘Mid-2022 slump’;

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/a...lump/10419802/


2023 Formula 1 Preview & Review.
25/11/2022, 07:20
Motorsport Forums

https://www.motorsportforums.com/sho...89#post1314189