There were three fascinating sessions, especially due to the unexpected appearance of the porpoising phenomenon, something that despite all the work on the simulators, no team had foreseen.
That was without a doubt the most repeated topic of conversation throughout the week, and is likely to remain so as Formula 1 approaches the start of the season.
We look at some of the lessons learned from this new generation of single-seaters.
Are the new 2022 F1 cars fun to drive?
The drivers arrived at the first pre-season tests in Barcelona not knowing what to expect in terms of the new cars and 18-inch tyres, with the increased weight limit being the main cause for concern.
However, once they hit the tarmac, feedback was positive. The drivers enjoyed the challenge of trying something different and therefore having to adjust their driving while helping their engineers optimize the new concepts.
“I must say they are fun,” said Pierre Gasly. “Last year, I felt very lucky to be driving the fastest car in history, so it was obviously amazing to drive them.”
“I think our starting point in terms of performance is not that far off from last year, so considering all the development we’re going to see from the start of the season and over the next couple of months, I think we’re going to see a lot of similar performance.”
“Single-seaters are always fun to drive,” said four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel. “I remember the days when the cars were quite a bit lighter. That I think is the only drawback, the weight, they are too heavy.”
“I think with these heavier cars and less downforce because of the new rules, I was probably expecting a worse feeling, or a bit more difficult to drive,” said Daniel Ricciardo. “But so far the truth is that it has felt very balanced.”
“Beyond the weight, I am enjoying these winter tests,” said Charles Leclerc. “The car is completely new and that’s why you have to change your driving style, which on the other hand is very interesting for us.”
How does the one-lap performance of the F1 2021 and F1 2022 compare? differences
From the start of testing, it was quite clear that the 2022 cars are faster than expected when the new rules were created.
Exactly how close they are to the lap times compared to last year at the moment is impossible to judge, as in Barcelona nobody really showed their potential.
So where’s the beat? All the drivers praised the performance of their new cars in high-speed corners, where ground effect really comes through. But on the other hand, due to the extra weight, the single-seaters are now less agile in the slow corners.
“I think we have seen that all the teams are much quicker compared to the three or four seconds of loss of performance that was originally expected,” said new Mercedes driver George Russell.
“The high-speed cornering performance looks like it’s on par with what we saw last year. That’s pretty impressive.”
“Obviously these high speed cars are super nice,” said Carlos Sainz. “Because you’re glued to the ground and the car is constantly producing a lot of downforce, it’s a really good feeling to drive them.”
Will 2022 F1 cars be better at overtaking?
The consensus of most of the drivers who at some point closely followed their rivals in the Barcelona tests was that the new rules had served their purpose, as it was now easier to chase each other.
“I’ve been following a few cars closely and it seems like it’s a bit easier now to stay right behind,” said Max Verstappen.
“At least you don’t feel this weird loss of downforce where you suddenly have a lot of extreme understeer or oversteer.”
“Of course, I don’t expect that to go away completely and suddenly you can be glued to the rear diffuser of the car in front because of the impressive speeds that an F1 car has, but it seems that everything is a bit more under control.”
Charles Leclerc explained that, as he got closer to the car in front, the ability to follow closely decreased, but that it recovered again when he was right behind.
“It’s quite interesting,” said the Monegasque driver. “Because I will say that when you go from three seconds to one second from the car in front, you can follow it more closely.”
“So from one second to five tenths I would say it’s pretty similar to the feeling I already had last year.”
“And then when you go from five tenths to being extremely close, then the feeling is much better than last year. It’s a good thing, obviously I’ll have to do a few more laps behind a car, but it looks like a positive for now.
However, Russell noted that the new cars didn’t slip as powerfully as their predecessors, suggesting that it might not be as easy to overtake after all.
“It has been improved in that aspect, but I think the slipstream effect has been reduced quite a bit.”
“I think we can follow each other more closely, but from what we have seen, the slipstream effect is less effective. So we will have to wait and see.”
“I got right behind Lando, he was a car or two away, and I couldn’t catch him on the straights. That was a bit worrying,” admitted the Mercedes driver.
Are there visibility issues with the 2022 F1 cars?
Towards the end of last season, drivers who had driven the 2022 cars in the simulators noted that visibility was affected by taller front tires and aerodynamic deflectors covering the inner tires.
Those concerns became reality as soon as the single-seaters began taking to the track on the filming days leading up to pre-season testing in Barcelona.
The drivers said they would get used to it, but also acknowledged that it could be difficult to drive the car accurately on the tighter tracks.
“The tires are also a bit bigger, so the visibility is a bit different,” Verstappen said. “I think on a track like this (Barcelona) it’s less of a problem, but when we go to street circuits it will be a bit more difficult.”
Daniel Ricciardo said that the lower and closer to the ground position of this year’s cars, without the rake of the past, also affected the drivers’ vision.
“Visibility is a bit worse,” said the Australian. “Basically all the cars this year are squarer and flatter, with a nose that rises a little bit.”
“And that changes our visibility, the bottom line is we have less of an angle of view around us. It’s something we’ll get used to, but it’s not a good thing right now.”
Will porpoising be a problem for 2022 F1 cars?
In Barcelona, all the teams suffered to a greater or lesser extent from “porposing” when they were driving at high speed on the pit straight.
So they spent much of the testing looking at ways to control it or at least minimize it by changing the height of the car or aerodynamic settings.
However, the consensus among all engineers seems to be that such a feature or issue is built into the 2022 F1 concept car.
So it could take quite some time for teams to fully resolve the issue without compromising their car’s performance, as for example if they raise the height of the car to avoid porpoising , their lap time would suffer.
Controlling this phenomenon on different tracks with different characteristics will not be easy, in fact, the fact that the teams have not been able to foresee it after so many months of tunneling and CFD work, indicates that they will have a lot of work ahead of them to find a perfect solution.
“We were a bit taken aback, but I think it has been the case for all the teams or at least most,” Alfa Romeo technical director Jan Monchaux said.
“I think that sooner or later we will get it under control with some modifications, mainly on the floor of the car, which will allow us to get a little closer to our optimum performance.”
“I also think that we will have to increase the height of the car more than we all thought at the beginning. The question will be how much more, 3-5mm, or 20mm? I hope it will be five, because then the work that we will have to do in the car will be smaller.
McLaren technical director James Key assured that it would take a few races for teams to understand and resolve these issues.
“I’m sure it’s something everyone is going to work on now. I think we’ll find solutions between set-up and aero development. I don’t think it’s going to be one of the talking points after the first five or six. careers”.
What are the engineering challenges in F1 2022?
Formula 1 teams face many other challenges beyond the famous porpoising as they try to optimize their new concepts and make the most of 18-inch tyres.
The new Pirellis weren’t one of the talking points in Barcelona, but they are likely to gain more prominence as F1 competes in warmer climates and drivers start to explore the limits of their cars.
The porpoising could also have contributed to the unreliability seen on the Barcelona grid, where several cars suffered from broken pipes and leaks.
The fact that the single-seaters ride lower to the ground raises other concerns, including the risk of wearing down the bottom of the flatbed too much and therefore getting a possible penalty, not to mention the obvious risk of damage from rubbing the asphalt.
Optimizing the height of the cars in different circuits and circumstances is one of the main challenges that the teams face.
Barcelona was only the first step into the unknown for teams and drivers. However, fans will have to wait until Bahrain to get a first visual idea.
