F1 2022 Car launch: Williams, AlphaTauri, Ferrari
Last week we saw three teams launching their 2022 cars : Williams, AlphaTauri and Ferrari
More blue for Williams
At their official launch, Williams only revealed their new livery on a show car – much like Red Bull. However, later on Tuesday, Nicholas Latifi drove a much different-looking machine at a sodden Silverstone.
Williams, one of F1’s most famous and historic manufacturers, are looking to maximise the much-changed rules to leap up the order this year after an improved eighth-placed finish in 2021, and start the new season with a new driver in Alex Albon after George Russell’s move to Mercedes.
Albon and team-mate Latifi were both present as Williams became the sixth team to launch their season. Willaims launched with an updated blue colour scheme kicking off a new F1 era with a nod to their past.
After three seasons at the bottom of F1 standings in 10th, Williams rebounded back to eighth last year.
With Russell replacing Valtteri Bottas after three years at Williams to join Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes, Albon steps into his shoes and will be expected to lead the team into a new era.
AlphaTauri 2022 : More same than different
Red Bull’s sister team AlphaTauri launched its 2022 car, with a revised livery.
AlphaTauri has been a podium finisher in each of the past three seasons as it has climbed the midfield ranks.
The 2022 regulations are a big test of what AlphaTauri can achieve in F1’s budget cap era. This will be done using its mix of in-house design and development and purchasing certain parts from Red Bull Racing.
That means the AT03 has Red Bull’s gearbox, rear suspension and hydraulics. And it has the Red Bull Powertrains-badged, Honda-developed engines.
Lead driver Pierre Gasly was among the six fastest qualifiers 16 times in 22 races last year. In fact, occasionally, he was ahead of the Ferraris and McLarens.
Team-mate Yuki Tsunoda has a more pressing challenge this year, as it was his tough rookie season in 2021 that meant AlphaTauri failed to make the most of its competitive car and slipped into – then lost – a battle for fifth in the championship with Alpine.
Ferrari 2022: Radical design, high expectations
Ferrari has launched the car it hopes can return to the front of the Formula One grid as a championship contender in 2022.
Ferrari’s new car, the F1-75, retains the team’s iconic red colours. However it has gone back to a more 1990s look with black front and rear wings.
On the design side, the team appears to have adopted similar sidepod louvres to the ones that caused a stir at Aston Martin’s launch and prompted comparisons on social media to cheese graters and shark gills.
Ferrari boasts one of F1’s strongest driver lineups in Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, who stay as teammates for the second season. Leclerc joined in 2019, the season he claimed his three F1 wins, while Sainz replaced Sebastian Vettel last season.
F1 hopes its new rule change will effectively reset the competitive order and create closer racing, although it is likely Mercedes and Red Bull will remain the teams to beat early on. The big question will be whether the likes of Ferrari and McLaren can close the gap from the midfield and move closer over the course of the season.
After failed championship challenges in 2018 and 2019, Ferrari struggled in 2020 and 2021. One potentially positive outcome of that was that the team was able to turn its attention fully to 2022 much earlier than the likes of Mercedes and Red Bull, who were locked in a championship fight until the final lap of last season’s championship.