Inside the Dawn of a New Era - Dissecting the 2022 Prototype

I think it looks cool. It's sleek, it's elegant and the front wing looks like Chase Carey's moustache.

The rims are, of course, disgusting - and we'll get onto them later - but the car gives me IndyCar vibes and that's certainly not a bad thing.

Image from @F1

Image from @F1

But let's get into the details, shall we?

The rear wing design has been completely overhauled, starting with the huge loss of rear wing endplates as we know them. Instead the wing is now pretty much a single element, with the slit creating two flaps. The DRS is the only similarity between the 2021 and 2022 wings, with the extremely cambered (wavy, if you like) surface creating 'rolled tips' that act like endplates.

This deep, spoon-like configuration is meant to scoop the dirty air up and essentially lob it over the following car instead of delivering it right into their path - the first of many changes to make close racing easier.

The aforementioned elimination of endplates, along with all their complex slots and slats (see below), create less spiralling, disturbed flow to yet again clean up the wake.

From @AlpineF1

From @AlpineF1

It's hard to see, but right at the bottom of the picture of the rear of the '22 car there are brake ducts, again highlighted in the red circle. They now look like they're mounted lower, like most parts now are also simpler and, most importantly, act as skirts to seal the undertray of the car to protect the ground effect venturis - we'll get to those later.

@F1

@F1

The front, apart from looking odd, has unsurprisingly been revolutionised. The wing is much, much bigger and now absolutely terrible at creating downforce. Having the nose so close (on top, actually) to the front wing ruins its efficiency, and so too does having so many elements high up and next to the nose. In a conventional setup, you would load the outboard side with flaps but leave some open space near the nose and here that isn't the case.

You may notice too the strange arrowhead shape of the base plane of the front wing; this is called a delta wing. It hasn't really been seen since the 70s in F1, it was on some legendary cars such as Gilles Villeneuve's Ferrari's, but isn't really considered efficient enough for modern aerodynamicists to consider. But it's back!

The endplates have had a facelift, again not nearly as powerful as their predecessors, but they have the addition of a strake on the side to create a powerful vortex which can be used for a wide variety of aerodynamic purposes; and isn't permitted under the current regs.

Speaking of vortices, the troublesome 'Y250 Vortex' (called so because it is created 250mm from the nose cone, along the y-axis) is gone because the gap between the front wing flaps and nose cone is no longer a gap; they're basically next to each other.

The Y250 vortex is made right where the needle-like tips of the front wing elements start sprouting, and it creates a lot of turbulence. Hence it was an easy decision for the FIA to remove it. Image sourced from @McLarenF1

The Y250 vortex is made right where the needle-like tips of the front wing elements start sprouting, and it creates a lot of turbulence. Hence it was an easy decision for the FIA to remove it. Image sourced from @McLarenF1

The key to annihilating downforce is absolute simplicity. So far this car does that.

And despite being much less productive from a downforce point of view, I'm extremely interested in seeing what solutions the teams come up for this part of the car - watch this space.

@F1

@F1

Away from the front wing there's the peculiar addition of the element attached to the wheels. On the left wheel (right in the picture) you can see my questionable edit of streamlines behind the tyre. The main problem open-wheel cars face come from the tyres; they initiate a mess of air which separates the neat, attached flow and distort it into flow separation which induces drag. The edit attempts to show this.

On the right tyre (left in the picture) you can see a schematic of the flow inboard of the tyre. The air is swallowed into the important gap behind the tyre, and this is where the element comes into play. What it can do, if taken advantage of correctly, is inject some free stream (basically the normal, oncoming flow) into the confused, scrambling bubble of air behind the car and essentially restore some order. This could reduce drag, and make this section of the airflow more useful later on.

Furthermore, since the element folds over the tyre it could influence the vortices the tyre itself makes (see the edit made around the front left tyre). I'm looking forward to seeing what the teams do with it, if indeed there is enough scope for development there.

@F1

@F1

The outlets for the cooling airflow are also new, as highlighted by the central circle, and will vastly influence how some of the oncoming air is directed. If warm air is coming out of it, it's not dense, and if it's not dense you'd rather not have it near your precious aerodynamic furniture. These types of outlets are called louvres (no, not the French museum) and haven't been seen since 2008.

The rear wing is, like it is now, supported by so-called 'swan-neck' double-pillar supports.

The lines of the bodywork are in general a lot cleaner, and the huge cut underneath the sidepod will create a crucial segment of airflow in front of the rear tyres - a location that has caused a huge shakeup this year.

@F1

@F1

And now we get to the most important part, the showstopper, the Ronaldo of the 2022 car - ground effect. It was banned in 1983, but it'll make a return for next year.

Essentially what it does is turn the car into a massive wing, using tunnels to suck and speed the air up underneath the car, creating incredible amounts of low pressure and incredible amounts of downforce. The arrows in the above picture demonstrate where the air will come in, with the parts sticking out just under the sidepod representing the entry and acting as a diffuser - preparing the air for the underbody tunnels/venturis which speed the air up. The normal bodywork around the sidepod area will act as skirts to seal this flow and maintain the pressure.

The best thing about this solution is that it creates low amounts of drag and turbulent wake - what I like to call 'green downforce'. It's genius; now that it's safe, that is.

Away from aerodynamics the engines will remain the same, albeit frozen, and the tyres go from 13 to 18 inch, with some hub covering that again cleans up some airflow in and around that tyre area.

Tyres that are 14KG heavier (but less heat sensitive, like they are now) and increased safety requirements mean a 5% increase in weight; from 752KG to 790KG.

That's a shame in my opinion, since lighter cars tend to be more fun to watch and drive for the drivers.

Overall, these changes should really spice up the racing and provide a new, more competitive era of F1 - I can't wait for that and, if you're weird like me, for the technical innovation too!

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All pictures are from the above sources, whilst all edits are my own.

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