Guide to F1 2022

The Weekend format

Each weekend will proceed as follows, with the exceptions of the Emilia Romagna, Austrian, and Brazilian Grands Prix (Sprint Weekends):

Friday:

Friday is the prep day for all teams and drivers, and it will have a new format, starting with two 90-minute free-practice sessions. These allow the drivers to get practice on the track and give the teams the opportunity to test out new parts and strategies. In contrast to last year, when Thursday was a devoted ‘media day,’ the schedule will be condensed to hold media interviews on Friday. A new addition to Fridays is a “show off your car” segment, where teams bring one of their cars and show the updates and upgrades to the FIA and other teams. This is being done for clarity with the rules and allows a time for the media to take a peak as well. I am very excited for this new addition and the way it helps the fans understand the engineering that occurs behind the scenes.

Saturday:

Saturday is crunch time. There is one one-hour session of practice in the morning, which is the teams’ last opportunity to get the car on track before the performance really matters. There is a two hour break before the qualifying sessions commence.

The qualifying sessions are the fastest sessions. Q1 is when all 20 cars get 18 minutes to set their fastest lap time. The teams will typically put in the least amount of fuel possible and put on the softest tyre compound in order to set the fastest lap time. At the end of the session the slowest five drivers are knocked out and start in the last positions for the race on Sunday, barring any penalties (which occur most often for replacing engine parts).

Q2 has the remaining 15 cars setting their fastest laps again, but with only 15 minutes on the clock. There is a similar knockout format for the five slowest drivers again, and similarly those five will start in spots 11-15 on the grid on Sunday.

Q1 typically has the fastest lap times. The top ten get 12 minutes to set their fastest times again to fight for pole position, or first place. The results of this session set the final positions for the race on Sunday.

Sunday:

This is race day, when the Grand Prix is run, and it is the most important day of the weekend. “The points are given out on Sunday,” is often heard in the lead up to race day. The races typically take less than two hours long. The top 10 finishers score points. The number of laps differ depending upon the length of each Grand Prix circuit. For the Belgium Grand Prix, the longest circuit on the calendar, there are only 44 laps, which is almost half the amount of laps as the Austrian Grand Prix which has 71 laps. The drivers are required to use two compounds of tires, forcing them to make a pit stop. They have banned refueling, which makes the ending lap times much faster than the starting times.

Sprint Races: This year the Emilia Romagna, Austrian and Brazilian Grands Prix have a sprint race. The typical qualifying is on friday during the second practice session. Saturday has a sprint race that is about ⅓ of the full race distance. The points are only awarded to the top 8 finishers, and the order of finish in the sprint race determines the starting positions for the Grand Prix on Sunday.

Scoring

Sprint Race

Finishing position	​Points awarded
1st	8
2nd	7
3rd	6
4th	5
5th	4
6th	3
7th	2
8th	1
9th +	No points awarded.

Sunday Race

Finishing position	Points awarded
1st	25
2nd	18
3rd	15
4th	12
5th	10
6th	8
7th	6
8th	4
9th	2
10th	1

The driver that has the overall fastest lap of the Grand Prix scores one extra point. However, if the driver with the fastest lap finishes in 11th place or lower, they are disqualified from earning the extra point.

Important Rules

This year there are significant changes made to the race directors, who are like the producers of a movie. Previously, this was a one man job. This year, two men are in that role. Each race there will only be one, but they will alternate weekends. They will oversee the race and manage the stewards, who allot penalties. The race director enforces all the rules, but now they will have backup, called VAR. This video review system has been compared with the system used in European football (soccer) leagues, but few details have been forthcoming from the FIA.

Penalties:

The teams have a limited amount of engine parts available to them, in order to ensure reliability is considered, rather than just engine performance. Each of the engine components has a limit of either two or three replacements allowed. The penalties can result in grid penalties on Sunday, dropping the drivers back a certain amount of places after qualifying. The first infraction costs drivers 10 places on Sunday, and then each additional part used results in only a 5 place penalty.

Drivers can also receive penalties for their driving. During races, the drivers can receive a 3-, 5- or 10-second penalty depending on how severe the infraction. These can be served after the race or at a pit stop during the race. Further than that, the stewards can bestow a drive-through and 10-second drive-through penalty. This means the drivers must go through the pit lane at the speed limit and could make them stop for 10 seconds in addition.

Teams

Mercedes

Mercedes is the most consecutively successful team in Formula One. They continued their streak of 8 Constructors World Championships last year. With 7-time world champion Lewis Hamilton driving the car, there is no doubt we’ll see this team in the headlines. George Russell, the young Brit, is also driving a Silver Arrow now after spending his first three years in F1 driving for Williams. He proved himself to Team Principal Toto Wolff over the past two years and looks to be the future of Mercedes racing. They look to be one of the title favorites again this year to continue their rule. With experience and a young gun, the formula may work well this year.

Red Bull

The reigning Driver’s world-champion Max Verstappen drives for Red Bull Racing. Sergio Perez also drives. This is how the team runs. Christian Horner, the Team Principal, has always had one star driver and another (many times inexperienced, but now experienced with Perez) driver alongside them. This worked last year with Verstappen winning the Drivers’ Championship. They look to be another title favorite with a quick car in testing. Adrian Newey is a famous aerodynamicist who has come up with many innovations in the past, such as the “blown diffuser” in 2010. It’s yet to be seen if he has come up with a similar innovation this year, but with such a big regulation change, he could prove beneficial to the team yet again.

Ferrari

Scuderia Ferrari has its youngest pairing in the vast history of the team. Charles Leclerc, the young Monegasque, has proven to be one of the quickest and most aggressive on the day, if he can keep himself from making too many mistakes. Carlos Sainz showed he is up to the task of being against a young gun. After many years bouncing around teams, he settled into Ferrari last year, managing three podiums and finishing ahead of Leclerc in the final standings. Their drivers have the talent to challenge for the title, but does their Team Principal Mattia Binotto? He started in Ferrari many years ago and has moved his way up. A trained and accomplished engineer, he has yet to prove himself as Team Principal, but this year should be a good year to do so, as Ferrari may have the car to challenge for a title.

McLaren

Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo, unlike how Drive To Survive portrays them, are one of the most brotherly driver pairings in F1. Unexpectedly, Norris outperformed Ricciardo last year which puts more pressure on Ricciardo. The German team principal Andreas Seidl has proven himself as a worthy hire after the teams’ first one-two finish since 2012 at the Italian Grand Prix. The team has been on an upward trajectory since 2016, but last year was a bit of a plateau. As they try to prove again they are worthy of championships, their drivers and team members will have to only get better.

Alpine

The Enstone-based team is looking to move forward with “El Plan” as described by two-time world-champion Fernando Alonso. Esteban Ocon surprisingly got his breakthrough win last year at the Hungarian Grand Prix. The pairing seems to be one of the toughest in the field, having the most evenly matched qualifying and only seven points in between them. This year’s success depends more upon how their car performs. Alpine manufactures its own engine, and this year is the first year with a split turbo engine, which was one of Mercedes’ first innovations in the turbo hybrid era, which began in 2014. It provides them more performance with a small deficit in reliability. Team Principal Otmar Szafneuer has switched from Aston Martin to Alpine for this season. His attitude should keep morale high for the team during this transition and make up for all of the new changes throughout the organization.

Alpha Tauri

Ah, the Red Bull junior program. Alpha Tauri, the “sister team” to Red Bull, finally has some stability after the 2019-2021 mess. After the shuffling of seats, we have continuity with Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly. After Tsunoda’s rookie year in 2021, he himself admitted he was unprepared both physically and mentally. His main goal this year should be getting rid of the mistakes. Too many times he lost out on good performances because of an incident. He ended with a P4 in Abu Dhabi, and since recency bias is huge in F1, many have hope; he now must prove he can perform consistently. Pierre Gasly, a race winner, continues to impress everyone in the paddock. With consistent top five qualifying the entire year, he showed he has the outright pace. He either needs to go back to Red Bull next year, or he should leave the junior program entirely. He’s proven his worth and has come back from the pit of 2019, when he was demoted from Red Bull back to Toro Rosso (Alpha Tauri’s name back then). Alpha Tauri has the potential to move up the order this year if they can get both drivers to perform consistently at the same level.

Aston Martin

As Aston Martin works toward moving up the field in their five-year plan, this year is pretty important. They had to design their own car this year with the funding of Lawrence Stroll, who has high hopes for the future. His son Lance is one of the drivers for the team but he had a very mediocre season last year. Four-time Drivers’ Champion Sebastian Vettel faired better than previous years with a podium at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. After 2020 many thought he was done with Formula 1, but this new project seemed to lift his spirits. Their car was the first one to hit the track this year, which shows they are ready. Hopefully they can do better this year and move higher in the midfield and continue to impress Vettel so he stays on board as their “star driver.”

Williams

The Williams team is another one of the teams that has history in F1 like no other. After decades of running as an independent team, this is Dorilton Captial’s first real test of whether their new redesigned team will perform. Williams has increased their partnership with Mercedes, getting more components from them than in previous years. Their two drivers, Alex Albon and Nicholas Latifi have a lot to prove. Albon is back after a one-year hiatus. His previous stint included a year and a half at Red Bull. He had a rough time with the team and his confidence took a major hit. Hopefully he can do well in the Williams car this year and prove his worth. Nicholas Latifi has to do the same, after his family supplied a big portion of the budget at the team for two years; now he’s there based on merit. This is his time to prove he's more than a pay driver. He needs to do what Lance Stroll has been able to do – take advantage of crazy races and nab a podium or at least a top 5 finish. Latifi needs to show that he can make the best of what he has and do something crazy, in a good way. He also has to overcome the negativity after his crash in Abu Dhabi last year. Hopefully Williams can compete with the midfield and improve on 8th in the constructor’s championship moving forward.

Alfa Romeo

Formerly Sauber, a Ferrari Junior team, Alfa Romeo has had a rough couple of years. 2018 was their best year in recent history with Charles Leclerc managing to score 39 points compared to his teammate’s 9 points. This past year was pretty dismal with drivers Antonio Giovanazzi and Kimi Raikonnen, who are both out of F1 now. Alfa Romeo signed rookie Gyuanu Zhou and experienced multiple-race winner Valtteri Bottas. Bottas is a very quick driver who struggled a bit in his last year at Mercedes, citing the time-limited contracts, thus having such pressure year after year. Now he has a 3-year deal with Alfa Romeo, which should help his confidence and improve his performance. Gyuanu Zhou is a bit more of a mystery. His finances definitely helped him get his seat, but he’s won multiple F2 races and was runner up in last year's F2 championship. Trying to pick the mid-field is always tough, but Alfa Romeo is truly an unknown going into this season.

Haas

Patriotic pride leads to rooting for Haas, the only American Formula 1 team on the grid, right? Wrong. The thing about Haas is that they should be good, but they really aren’t. Mick Schumacher, the son of 7-time world champion Michael Schumacher, is their saving grace. It is his second year with the team, so he has had one year to adjust and feel more comfortable. His future talent is promising. Kevin Magnusson takes over the other seat from Nikita Mazepin, whose father is a Russian oligarch who financed the team through its rebuild in 2021. Mazepin was universally recognized as the worst driver on the grid, both in performance and in personality. After Russia invaded Ukraine, Haas discontinued the sponsorship deal with the father and subsequently sacked the son. Guenther Steiner is their team principal. On Netflix’s Drive to Survive, Steiner was a leading character for his colorful language, calling his drivers, among other things, “f******* wankers.” Despite his cartoonish portrayal, he really is a good leader. The team has great people working for them, but they just haven’t had the performance recently. Maybe Magnusson’s reintroduction to the team will bring back some hope to this team who basically forfeited the past season to work on the new car for 2022.

In Summary,

All of the teams are looking to move up the pecking order this year, which seems to be Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari at the front and the other teams chasing them behind. Ultimately, the Bahrain Grand Prix will show who has made smart moves with their designs, and who will flop. With the new regulations aimed at having better and closer racing, this should be a very entertaining year in F1.