F1 season preview: gearing up for another enthralling title race
Rebecca Keegan
Its all systems go for the 2022 season of Formula One, with the first race taking place this weekend in Bahrain.
Last season was hailed as ‘one of the greatest ever’ with the championship race going all the way down to the final lap of the final race.
The anticipation for the new season has reached fever pitch, with driver changes, new regulations, a new season of Driver to Survive and new racetracks; it’s all to play for.
Surprisingly, there is only one new driver on the grid, Zhou Guanyu, who is racing for the Alfa Romeo team. Zhou becomes the first Chinese driver to compete in F1, so the pressure and expectation of a nation will certainly be weighing heavily on his shoulders.
New regulations for cars, planned before the pandemic, are being introduced this season to add enhanced excitement to the sport.
Most of the drivers line up consists of those who have previously raced in F1 as well as those who have changed teams ahead of the new campaign.
Those who fall into the latter category include George Russell who has moved from from Williams to Mercades and subsequently, Valtteri Bottas who has swapped Mercades for Alfa Romeo.
The duo were the talk of the paddock last season, particularly when they crashed dramatically into one another at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, and it will be interesting to see if there is any lingering tension between them this year.
Drivers making a return to the track are Alex Albon for Williams after Russell’s Mercades move and Nico Hulkenburg to Haas, after Russian driver Nikita Mazepin was outed from the team due to the current political events in his homeland.
Will these drivers slot effortlessly into their new cars or will there be trouble at the first turn?
Speaking of cars, this season brings one of the biggest regulation changes in the sport’s recent history in terms of manufacturing, opening the doors to big upsets.
There is the introduction of a ground-effect floor, a simplified front wing and a sharp new rear wing and 18-inch tires with wheel winglets ensuring a whole new generation of cars will be taking to the track on Sunday.
Teams like Ferrari are expected to do well this season as they have proritised the development of this year’s car over their previous ones. Additionally, the usual back of the field team Haas had some surprisingly fast times during pre-season testing, but will this equate to race pace?
Drivers have commented on how hot the cars are getting and how big the wheels are, but all seem to be in favour of the new regulations which are primarily to entice more overtakes and thus hopefully, better racing.
It promises to be a really exciting title race, with emerging talents such as George Russell and Lando Norris set to challenge seasoned pros Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen
With last season's championship ending in such controversy that the race director Michael Massi was fired and new race regulations put in place, the sport will be looking to regain the trust of the drivers and the fans. Record-breaker Lewis Hamilton will surely be looking to regain what he felt he was robbed of, that coveted eight world championship title this time around.
An aggressive youngster in the name of Max Verstappen stands in his way, and the Dutchman will not be wanting to give up what he has worked hard for.
His dramatic Championship win last year saw him change his racing number from 33 to 1 but the title, as has previously been the case, is not exclusively available to a small pool of drivers.
George Russell has been tipped to do well, considering he managed to put one of the slowest cars in the grid into second place during a qualifying session last season, his capabilities in a good car could spell trouble for the others, including his teammate Hamilton.
Youngsters such as Lando Norris and Carlos Sianz will be seeking their first race win after achieving podium positions last season. Norris will be desperately hoping to right the wrongs of last season, having narrowly lost out on his maiden win in Sochi last year when he was caught out on the wrong tires during the final laps of the race. Charles Leclerc will be hoping to also add more wins to his tally and help Ferrari close in on their opponents.
This campaign, as a byproduct of last season, is set to be one of the best and most competitive ever. F1 is getting their engines revved up and visors down, because this season will be unforgiving, unforgettable and unmissable, and a slow start off the line could spell disaster for anyone on the track.
Rebecca Keegan is a sports reporter for The Scoop and a Media and Broadcast Production student at Queen’s University Belfast.