THE WINNERS AND LOSERS OF F1 2022’s FIRST BIG TEST
The first week of the new term posed more questions than answers – as usual – but there was still plenty to be drawn from what we saw at Barcelona last week
Formula 1’s new era has finally arrived. New designs, new drivers, new rules returning to an old problem – there was plenty to see, question and dig into over last week’s three days of running at the Circuit de Barcelona-catalunya. The championship returned to its now traditional laboratory track, which was even soaked at one stage to test the full wet Pirellis – for all of three laps in total, all completed by Mclaren and Daniel Ricciardo. As ever the usual caveats of testing applied, as all the teams and drivers are keen to point out at every available opportunity. Everyone is somewhere and everyone is nowhere.
But by combining the headline times, the reasons behind the biggest on-and-off track developments of the test (clearly not a shakedown as billed by F1), snippets of insight taken in on trackside wanders, plus data and information provided by paddock sources, we can at least paint a picture of how things appear to stand now that the Barcelona event is in the books.
By the time the F1 paddock reconvenes in Bahrain next week, that picture will develop and alter, the full reality finally revealed by the stopwatch come qualifying at the Sakhir venue a further week on.
So, here’s what we know so far.
THE PROBLEMS AT THE ‘BACK’
Sport and politics can never be separated, but as the Russian invasion of Ukraine took events in eastern Europe well beyond that stage, a consequence was Haas’s test ending up being eclipsed by outside events. The branding and colours of the squad’s Russian sponsor Uralkali were removed from the VF-22 for the final day, and Nikita Mazepin’s drive with the team appears to be under major threat.
Haas’s on-track plans also took a hit, as reliability problems mounted to mean the team racked up the lowest lap total of any squad – 160 versus Ferrari’s 439. The main problems were an oil system leak, which cost it most of the final day in an all-white livery, a damaged fuel pump, a cooling leak and floor damage on day one. Haas ended up ninth fastest team in the overall times, with a best lap of 1m21.512s set by Mazepin on the C3 tyres. But the team’s 2022 challenger has an intricate overall design that has at least caught the eye of rival squads, and Haas is not definitively off the pace at this stage – it just never got the chance to show any last week. “hopefully in Bahrain we don’t have any gremlins, ”concluded team boss Gunther Steiner.
At least Haas isn’t propping up the times, which is where Alfa Romeo finds itself. The Sauber-run squad is another that is low on mileage too, with a total number of laps just 15 higher than that of Haas. Alfa also lost time to mechanical maladies, with rookie driver Guanyu Zhou additionally causing one of five red flags on the final day when he spun off at the long, Turn 10 hairpin.
The incident unfolded in front of Autosport and occurred just as several cars were charging hard on performance runs with less than an hour left of the morning session remaining. Zhou lost the rear of the C42 just after turn-in for the left-hander and, although he fought hard to gather things up, it was to no avail and the car was beached in the gravel.
The overall loss of track time compounds a problem for Alfa, which needs to learn as much as it can about its new car – and the porpoising problem that is causing damage and set-up challenges at all the teams – while its new driver is learning his F1 craft at the same time. The suggestion from rival squads is that Alfa is in trouble at the back.
“I am confident we can make up the time we lost and be fully ready for the season ahead, ”said new signing Valtteri Bottas, who ended up with a best time ahead only of Alfa reserve Robert Kubica’s from the opening morning at the rear of the pack. Zhou set Alfa’s 10th place earning 1m21.885s on the C3s on day two.
“HAAS’S TEST WAS ECLIPSED BY OUTSIDE EVENTS, AND MAZEPIN’S DRIVE APPEARS UNDER THREAT”
Camp Nou is just down the road from the Barcelona track, but what we’re discussing here concerns another pack of teams that all showed potential, were hoping for more progress, and all encountered particular problems. None of these is necessarily off the pace conclusively; their grouping in a‘midfield’tag simply reflects how events unfolded and why, and feels as appropriate a term for F1 as it does for football.
Alpine was feeling confident after completing 252 laps across the opening two days of running. An Esteban Ocon race simulation had been achieved, with just a broken floor bracket costing the team a little garage time. But, just as Fernando Alonso was showing strong pace at the start of the final day, disaster struck. A hydraulics problem caused a fire at the rear of the car, and the resulting damage meant the team took no further part than the near-hour Alonso had been running for that morning, where his pace had been strong on the C3s.
While this alone was a major setback, Alpine appeared to have significant work to do to improve the A522’s balance after Alonso was clocked on the opening day having the hardest time of any driver with the sluggish handling that a ground-effect formula produces through slow corners, such as the long, right-hand Turn 4. The car was sliding and Alonso was hesitant on the power, but the lost final day cost
Alpine the chance to show off its pre-fire progress.
One bright note for Alpine is the team’s high placing in the order of best times through Barcelona’s third sector over the whole test. This has long been a benchmark of how good cars are at treating their fragile tyres, although a notable caveat is that in testing drivers regularly lift off the power coming out of the final corner at this circuit to disguise their true performance level.
Nevertheless, data Autosport has gathered puts Alpine – which recorded the eighth fastest overall time of the test, a lap set on the
C3s – fourth behind Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari through the sector three times. The team also opted not to use DRS during its running due to concerns over top-speed aero loads, which cost it around 0.7s per lap.“my gut feel is that we are probably a little bit closer to the front than we were at the end of last year,”said Alpine sporting director Alan Permane.
Another team to end this test on the back foot after showing flashes of promise is Alphatauri. The team finished with the sixth fastest time thanks to Pierre Gasly’s 1m19.918s on day two – set on the C4s – but missed out on the performance running late on the final day because of the Frenchman’s Turn 5 crash in the morning session. The damage was severe enough to require two team members to ride alongside the car on the recovery truck, holding the car in its designhiding cover as it returned to the pitlane. Other machines that needed to be carried back to the pits were secured with straps alone.
The AT03 appears to be another solid and compliant platform for the Alphatauri drivers to work with, features that have served the team well in recent seasons, but it can clearly bite given Gasly’s crash.“i think that we have a really strong foundation for the year,”team boss Franz Tost reflected.“unfortunately, Pierre had a lock-up of the front tyres, which meant he spun off [and damaged the car].”
Williams ended up just behind Alphatauri in the overall times, with Alex Albon’s 1m20.318s on the C4s on the final day standing as its best laptime. But the team was significantly ahead of the other ‘midfield’teams in terms of laps completed, coming in just 11 short of Red Bull (third overall) on 347.
What really stood out for Williams last week was the feeling that the team was giving off about its chances in 2022. Although its true place in the pecking order remains as clouded as it does for everyone else, the squad is confident that it is in the mix with other teams and seems likely not to be set for a backmarker campaign. Its design, most notably with its svelte nose and eye-catching sidepods, plus a gorgeous livery, is turning heads.
One possible negative for Williams concerned the puffs of smoke the FW44 was producing when Albon stepped on the gas at corner exit on the final afternoon. Although more than likely an oil overfill, which is what the team itself suspects, there have been suggestions for the entire field that the bumpy ride the ground-effect cars are having at top speed isn’t exactly making things easy for engines. And the works Mercedes and Mclaren were not spotted with this occurrence. “With the 2021 cars being largely carried over from 2020,”said Williams head of vehicle performance Dave Robson,“it has been enjoyable to once again get to grips with a whole new car.”
Aston Martin ended up as the fastest of this‘midfield’pack thanks to Sebastian Vettel’s 1m19.824s on the softest C5 rubber on the final morning, but it too was brought down by a dramatic reliability failure a short while after that lap was posted. Just a few minutes after the track had gone green again, after Zhou caused a second red flag when he pulled over on the pitstraight after his Alfa suffered a hydraulic leak, Vettel arrived at Turn 10. Like the Alfa earlier on Friday, the rear of his car swung around and he therefore scampered into the gravel, but it soon became apparent this was down to a big car problem. An oil leak caused a fire and smoke was soon pouring from the rear of the AMR22, so Vettel leapt out and grabbed a fire extinguisher, joining the quickly attending marshals in dousing the car.
But before this he had been looking quick on the C4 Pirellis, albeit hustling and hurrying his machine in a way the everplanted Mercedes and Red Bull drivers – George Russell and Max Verstappen at that stage – were not.
“My first impression of the AMR22 has been relatively positive,” said Vettel.“so, I am really looking forward to working with the team to take further forward steps in Bahrain. It was a shame to end the day with an issue, but we have completed many laps [sixth on 296], so we can be happy with our work this week.”