Everything about the post season testing at the yas marina circuit
Mule car testing , driver switcheroo's , and 2022 car upgrades
The f1 post season testing has finished and the teams head home for holidays and for preparation for the next big season.
Here's what went down at the yas marina circuit in Abu Dhabi.
2022 Mule car testing
The mule cars fitted with the 2022 regulatory components were tested by most of the teams with current drivers as well as young drivers like Oscar piastri etc.
FIA states that the mule car shall not be based on the 2021 cars, the teams have to convert the older cars instead.
The massive 18 inch wheels
The controversial but quite awesome looking 18 inch wheels were tested , there was controversy about the increase in weight as well as slower cars etc , but nevertheless they are doing well and Pirelli has tested their new tyres under real circumstances a lot of times before this, and now the other drivers have tested them on the mule cars as well. The wheels will be provided by BBS
The very big new brake drums
Well they aren't drum brakes... that would be phillistine, they are disc's but the drum covers that go over them are absolutely massive. Like buckets , the teams call them cake tins. The width isn't changed but the diameter has.
Alpine's complex front wing
Wheel covers
Yes! They have come back! They were used in the 2007 to 2010 seasons .They don't quite look good as we have seen in the ev market, but every team will be running them next season. The caps could very well be used as more area for advertising the sponsors.
Led wheel caps on the McLaren's
The mclaren cars were seen testing LED versions of the wheel caps , not sure what they're for yet, but definitely not like pimped up sneakers for sure.
Pirelli F1 chief Mario Isola said "When you install that LED device and it’s working, it can do whatever it wants,”
“It can show position, it can show logos, it can show lap time in qualifying or something. There are many possibilities. It’s technology, so it’s easy to program what you want to show.”
Maybe its one of those spinning led clock things here.its called the led propeller display
Valtteri Bottas starts new life in the alfa romeo
the number 77 is ON the beautiful Alfa Romeo, another fast finn in Kimi's seat. Bottas is seen testing the alfa and hopefully will compete successfully next year.
Guanyu zhou was also present at the track, the Chinese replacement driver for the Italian Jesus. Next year's performance cannot be based upon the data from f2 as we've seen other top f2 drivers struggle massively this year.
Haas comes first!
Young test driver Robert Schwartzman drove the HAAS car in the new configuration and was actually fastest in the overall session. Is HAAS finally upto something? Well that would be awesome for the team.
The HAAS cars do look quite beautiful in the new configuration.
Test data and results
Norris finished second completing more than 100 laps
Sebastian Vettel had a hydraulic issue in the morning that caused a stoppage and a red flag to end the day three for Aston Martin. He completed more than two race distances for the team, and set his fastest lap in the final five minutes of the session.
the aston martin mule car is based on the racing point rp20
George Russell finished fourth for Mercedes after a second day of running in the Mercedes W10 mule car from 2019, ending up six tenths of a second off Norris’s lap time.
Pierre Gasly ended up fifth for AlphaTauri ahead of Carlos Sainz, sixth in the Ferrari, Fernando Alonso completed almost 150 laps.
Sergio perez completed 150 laps.
Pietro Fittipaldi in 10th place for Haas after completing its mule car running through Wednesday.
Williams did not take part in Wednesday’s test session as they dont have a mule car.
alpine with quite rigid tread
danill kvyat helped test the 2022 tyres so probably they will perform well beyond good
F1 will return with pre-season at the end of February with in Barcelona.
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Comments (4)
Good summary! Really excited for next year.
Thanks!
Great summary Ag. It should be an exciting 2022 season!
Thanks! I really hope bottas has a good season with alfa providing a good car!