Hamilton breaks his silence as F1’s 2022 cars hit the track at last

It took a while but, when Lewis Hamilton decided to end his silence, he did so with some strong, well-considered comments. Mercedes launched its 2022 Formula 1 attack last week and, as our piece on page 20 shows, Hamilton did not mince his words concerning December’s controversial Abu Dhabi Grand Prix finale, or his desire to make sure the FIA changes (p4) result in real improvements.

Hamilton was also careful not to criticise Max Verstappen in the whole saga while at the same time saying that “we will obviously grow from our races and experiences we had last year”, indicating he hopes – or expects – a cleaner on-track fight this time around…

Of course, many fans hope the battle at the front won’t just be about Mercedes and Red Bull in 2022. It really is about time Ferrari challenged for its first titles since the team’s 2008 constructors’ crown. The new F1-75 certainly looks the part and, as Luke Smith discovers on p28, there is an air of cautious optimism coming out of Maranello.

As well as looking at the latest Mercedes and Ferrari machines, our Technical Editor Jake Boxall-legge also casts his eye over the Alpine, Williams and Alfa Romeo contenders, as testing kicks off this week.

Also getting under way before the end of February is the Indycar season. David Malsher-lopez investigates Romain Grosjean’s chances and picks out the main storylines in our preview on p34.