Today at the British Grand Prix the new 2022 car was unveiled for everyone to see. The reasoning for such changes is to make for closer racing which in some ways throws away all the aero dynamic developments of the last decade.
The 2022 car was designed by an in house Formula One team with the main goal of creating closer racing taking away the dirty air created by downforce. Downforce has made the cars what they are today but at the same time has taken away from having a closer racing spectacle.
facts and data show that a car running within 20 meters of another car hits the dirty air thus losing in the region of 35% downforce making it almost impossible to overtake. A car only 10 meters away would lose almost 50% of it's downforce which makes it almost undrivable. The new shaped car above will see only a 4% loss at 20 meters and a 18% loss at 10 meters.
The front nose and wings have been changed and in some ways have got smaller as their job has changed. In the past the nose cone and wings were designed to trap air funneling that trapped air down the underneath of the car creating downforce. This new design and shape is to allow another car to drive closer to the car in front by deflecting most of the air down the side of the car and not trapping it underneath.
It is the change of concept that will take getting used to as the teams designed this aero shape to force the car into the ground. This allowed them to increase the power to the rear wheels creating more grip allowing the cars to stick in the corners making them travel faster. In some ways this has taken Formula One back to the late 1970's where the ground effect was outlawed. Think of the front wings as upside down aeroplane wings helping to create downforce without channeling trapped air through the floor and that is basically this concept in a nutshell.
The large 18 inch wheels with winglets on top are designed to keep the tyres cooler than what is currently being experienced. The downforce created by todays cars made for an uneven ride when in the dirty air and the winglets are designed to make the ride smoother creating less degradation of the rubber.
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The rear wing does not have DRS capability at the moment and possibly it won't as this feature will not be required with this new set up. DRS was designed to help cars overtake to blast through the dirty air with less drag so it may or may not return at some point in the future. The back wing creates an outline of a mushroom which helps dissipate the affected air from the car following close behind.
Engines will remain the same next season except the fuel will be adjusted to have 10% ethanol. The ethanol has to have a zero percentage carbon footprint in the way the ethanol is made to bring it into line with where the sport is heading.
The one new factor which was bought about due to Roman Grosjean's crash last season is the fuel cell. The car has been designed to split into two separating the driver and front section from the engine and fuel cell so fuel is never exposed near the driver.
The 2022 is car is what the teams have to work with now and expect teams to change things from now until the first race next season. We all know that the teams have the top designers and engineers and will find ways to improve what they have right now as long as whatever they do is within the new regulations.