2022 Car Launches and Pre-season Testing (March 10-12, Bahrain)

The video shows a concept car, but the photos are just renders of the actual model
https://twitter.com/AlpineF1Team/sta...vDyri7809k1Bxw

Honestly, once we get through those first two races, the car is gonna look way better than anyone’s actually expecting

wiredseal7 said:Here’s my take.
The rule states sidepods can't have wings; they need rounded elements with a minimum radius (which explains why Ferrari went with that sculpted shape). Since there's a crash structure in that area, you can't just have a sharp little wing like in this sketch; it would need to be a larger component. They could potentially design sidepods without an intake.

I doubt they'll go that route, though. If they did, all that dirty air coming off the tires would hit the rear of the car directly. Everyone else uses wider sidepods specifically to push that air away.

That sharp wing—if that's what we're calling it—is actually the side crash structure. It has its own dedicated legality box, separate from the sidepod legality box.
It wouldn't be the first time a crash structure partially protruded from the rest of the car's bodywork.

And while this concept from Scarbsov might be perfectly legal under the current regulations, it would likely be impossible to cool the entire power unit and intercooler using only a central inlet.

So, the central inlet would handle cooling for only certain components. Maybe the intercooler and the oil cooler, while the engine radiators sit inside the sidepods. That would allow the sidepods to stay slimmer.

Gregory Brown94 said:...

Are you claiming the technical regulations limit the minimum width of the car's flanks?
Just paste the specific section from the rulebook. I'm not interested in staring at colorful diagrams.

Regarding Alpine, the pattern continues: every single new car looks completely different from anything they've shown us before. This season could be something special.

It’s a shame about the color scheme, though. Alpine plav and that BWT pink just don't work together at all.
It looks terrible.

Man, last year's Alpine looked so sharp, and now this pink color scheme has totally ruined the aesthetic.

Raymond Anderson4 said:Man, last year's Alpine looked sharp—now this pink mess has completely ruined the vibe.

Sure, the car is fine, but those suits look like some weird Super Mario pink edition.

I have this feeling that the Alpine car might end up looking even uglier once it actually hits the track

Jason Campbell70 said:That sharp little winglet (if that's what we're calling it) is actually just a side impact structure. It has its own legality box, separate from the sidepod legality box.
It wouldn't be the first time a crash structure poked out slightly from the rest of the car's bodywork.

And while this Scarbsov idea is perfectly legal under the current regs, it's very likely that you couldn't possibly cool all the PU components plus the intercooler using just the central inlet.

So, the central inlet would only handle cooling for certain parts. Maybe the intercooler and the oil cooler, then only engine radiators go into the sidepods. That would allow the sidepods to be smaller.

You're claiming the technical regulations limit the minimum width of the car's sides.
Just copy-paste the specific part of the technical regs for me. I'm not really interested in looking at colorful diagrams.

You basically answered your own question and now you're trying to turn a monologue into a dialogue. htebati Scrabs is just joking around and messing with you guys, but you've latched onto this problem like it's some crisis only Hank Pym can solve. Unless the TVA shows up with some Vremenski vrata 🤣

Just one question, since you clearly fell for those Scarbsov troll posts that only people out of the loop fall for: is there actually an aero advantage if you strip away two pre-set wings on the sides? Not even at a high-speed track like Indianapolis, that wouldn't work.

I don't feel like digging through the "bible" that is the technical regulations to find the minimum allowable widths for the car's sides. I won't even try.

Anyway, Alpine looks pretty bad. 🎉Haas is full of little surprises since they're clearly copying Ferrari. If that concept works, we might see a repeat of the early hybrid era when Ferrari was leading and Haas was right on their heels...

Gregory Brown94 said:It’s just not possible under the regulations. At most, we saw how slim they could get with Williams, and that was the absolute limit. Whether you look at the rulebook or the engineering itself, it can't be done.

Jason Campbell70 said:Which specific part of the technical regulations actually limits the minimum width of the sidepods?

Gregory Brown94 said:I have no desire to go hunting through the "bible" that is the technical regulation book just to find minimum sidepod dimensions. I won't even bother.

Thanks for the answer. I have no interest in further bickering over this. 👍

Jason Campbell70 said:It’s a shame about this color palette. Alpine plav and BWT pink just don't work together at all.
It looks terrible.

The driver suits look even worse.



Like something straight out of a cartoon.

It’d be pretty damn sweet if someone actually took the time to put all the cars from the exact same angle into a single post, you know?

darkmarlin16 said:Wouldn't it be wonderful if someone could just compile a single post featuring every car captured from that exact same angle?

With testing kicking off tomorrow, I suppose we can finally look forward to seeing some actual, high-quality photos of the cars.

First serious looks at the new Alpha Tauri. Such intricate details on the front floor assembly... and that nose design? It’s an interesting approach. Seems like a very polished product overall.

Looks great.

Jason Campbell70 said:It’s like they jumped straight out of a cartoon.

Their names are practically tattooed on their asses. 😬 😬

graniteharbor502 said:Testing kicks off tomorrow, so we’re finally gonna see some actual, high-res shots of the cars.

Honestly, looking at the McLaren livery, I am just not feeling it at all—the colors themselves are killer, but they totally missed the mark on how to actually apply them to the car.

I think Mercedes might actually have the best-looking kit they've ever produced.

As for Williams, it’s just kind of basic to me.

AlphaTauri is sticking with that dark blue nose, which is a total miss in my book; it looked way cleaner when they were rocking the white.

Aston Martin finally ditched that BWT pink nonsense and went back to looking like a proper Aston Martin.

That black look on the Ferrari is looking sharp, too—they haven't pulled off a combo quite like this since the early 90s.

And hey, Alpine actually looks better with this pink than I thought it would.

Haas is pretty boring, just like last year, but hey, at least it shows that Americans and Rus can actually play nice together for once.😁

Gregory Brown94 said:You basically answered your own question and now you're trying to turn a monologue into a dialogue. Scrabsov is just joking around and messing with everyone, yet here you are, grasping at straws that only Hank Pym could actually fix. Unless the TVA steps in with some vremenski vrata 🤣

Just one thing, since you clearly fell for Scrabsov's trolling—which only the clueless fall for—is there any aerodynamic advantage to stripping away two wing elements from the sidepods? Even at a powerhouse track like Indianapolis, it wouldn't stand a chance...

I can't be bothered to go digging through the technical regulations bible to find the minimum allowable sidepod values. Not worth the effort...

Anyway, Alpine looks pretty much 🎉 Haas full of little surprises, since they're obviously copying Ferrari. If that concept actually works, we might see a repeat of those early hybrid era days when Ferrari was dominating and Haas was right on their heels...

Just curious, looking at this from the outside—how would you rank them in terms of aerodynamics? Who gets the edge in your book?

It's obvious some people are annoyed, but based on my very modest understanding of fluid mechanics, I’d say stop talking nonsense. Just keep going... I enjoy reading this stuff, and it's fun watching how these models evolve...

Jason Campbell70 said:Thanks for the reply, but I'm really not interested in going back and forth over this anymore. 👍

Pilatus is basically the perfect example of why this forum struggles. Honestly, I don't know how you all don't get tired of taking a few words out of context and twisting them into something entirely different from what was actually said.

I'm being serious here—it’s this repetitive, irrational behavior that happens year after year. Every single year, it's the exact same headache. It's just not right. It feels like some people live for this forum, lacking any empathy or sense of community. To those who actually act like decent humans, I respect you. You're the only reason I haven't left yet. 🙏

Kudos to Scrabble, though. They managed to turn the entire F1 community into a live-action version of 🙏Idiocracy
just by trolling with a single tweet.
Anyway, that's my rant done. I feel a little better getting that off my chest. Even if I end up getting a warning for it...

🤦🤦🤦

Glad testing is finally getting underway

In the end, the Alpine ended up being the best-looking car on the grid.

Live testing updates:
motorsport
official website

We won't see any live television coverage of the testing sessions until we reach Bahrain.

For those of you wondering just how aggressive the design philosophy will be at Red Bull (to put it simply: quite a lot):