Motorsports
The presentation dates of the individual cars and the Formula 1 tests
Formula 1 enters the feverish rhythm of the new 2022 season from Wednesday (02/09) with the first presentation – the Red Bull RB18. Read when each team unveils their new car and when the winter development tests take place.
This year’s cars are among the most anticipated of recent years, as the radical change in technical regulations and their aerodynamics – to allow for closer battles on the track – forced all teams to design them in white.
At the same time, the further reduction in each team’s budget limit from $145 million to $140 million this year provides even more opportunities for the less affluent teams to claim their spots against the richer ones – Mercedes, RBR and Ferrari.
Consequently, at this point nobody knows what the new balance of power at the top of the sport will be like and who the protagonists and contenders for the title will be. To a (small) extent, this will show up in the first winter tests, which start on February 23 at the Barcelona track.
Last Friday (4/2), Haas unexpectedly released a series of digitally processed photos of the 2022 car, which, on the one hand, did not depict the natural car, and on the other hand, saw the light of the group’s sponsors. The design of the real, physical Haas VF-22 that will be revealed in the first tests will differ significantly from what these digital images showed.
At the presentations of the cars, which will follow almost every day over the next two weeks, we won’t see many design details and ideas from the teams anyway. These are disclosed as soon as possible in the tests so that they are not copied – at least not directly – by the competition.
However, there are some teams – such as Mercedes and McLaren – that don’t limit themselves to showing up their cars before testing, but do the first shakedown of the car on the track on the same day to check its systems. The FIA allows each team certain private test kilometers with non-representative tires for advertising and marketing purposes.
Two days of official Formula 1 testing will follow in Barcelona and Bahrain before the Emirates host the first GP of the new year on March 20.
PRESENTATIONS 2022
February 9th – Red Bull
10 February – Aston Martin
February 11 – McLaren
February 14 – Alpha Tauri
February 15 – Williams
February 17 – Ferrari
February 18 – Mercedes
February 21 – Alpine
February 23 – Haas
February 27 – Alfa Romeo
WINTER TESTS 2022
February 23-25 – Barcelona, Spain
10-12 March – Shakir, Bahrain
Jessica Martinez is an author at Sportish, a publication dedicated to sports news and analysis. She covers various topics related to sports and provides insightful commentary on the latest developments in the world of sports.