2022 Formula One World Championship


The 2022 FIA Formula One World Championship is a planned motor racing championship for Formula One cars which will be the 73rd running of the Formula One World Championship. It is recognised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, the governing body of international motorsport, as the highest class of competition for open-wheel racing cars. The championship is due to be contested over a series of races, or Grands Prix, held around the world. Drivers and teams are scheduled to compete for the titles of World Drivers' Champion and World Constructors' Champion respectively.
The 2022 championship is expected to see the introduction of significant changes to the sport's technical regulations. These changes had been intended to be introduced in, but were delayed until 2022 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Entries

The following teams and drivers are currently under contract to compete in the 2022 World Championship. All teams will compete with tyres supplied by Pirelli.
ConstructorPower unitNo.Driver nameRef.
Aston Martin-TBATBA11 Sergio Pérez
Aston Martin-TBATBATBA TBA
FerrariFerrari16 Charles Leclerc
FerrariFerrari55 Carlos Sainz Jr.
McLaren-MercedesMercedes3 Daniel Ricciardo
McLaren-MercedesMercedes4 Lando Norris
Red Bull Racing-TBATBA33 Max Verstappen
Red Bull Racing-TBATBATBA TBA
Williams-MercedesMercedesTBA TBA
Williams-MercedesMercedesTBA TBA

Team changes

Panthera Team Asia announced their intention to join the grid in 2022. The team had planned to enter the championship in 2021, but was forced to delay their plans because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

List of planned races

The following thirteen Grands Prix are contracted to form a part of the 2022 World Championship.
Grand PrixCicuitRef.
Australian Grand Prix Albert Park Circuit, Melbourne
Azerbaijan Grand Prix Baku City Circuit, Baku
Bahrain Grand Prix Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir
Belgian Grand Prix Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Stavelot
British Grand Prix Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone
Canadian Grand Prix Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montréal
Dutch Grand Prix Circuit Zandvoort, Zandvoort
French Grand Prix Circuit Paul Ricard, Le Castellet
Hungarian Grand Prix Hungaroring, Mogyoród
Italian Grand Prix Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, Monza
Mexico City Grand Prix Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Mexico City
Russian Grand Prix Sochi Autodrom, Sochi
Vietnamese Grand Prix Hanoi Street Circuit, Hanoi

The following five Grands Prix are under contract to run in 2021, but do not have a contract for 2022.
Grand PrixCircuitRef.
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi
Japanese Grand Prix Suzuka International Racing Course, Suzuka
Monaco Grand Prix Circuit de Monaco, Monaco
Singapore Grand Prix Marina Bay Street Circuit, Singapore
United States Grand Prix Circuit of the Americas, Austin, Texas

Regulation changes

Technical regulations

The 2022 World Championship is due to see an overhaul of the technical regulations. These changes had been planned for introduction in, with teams developing their cars throughout. However, the introduction of the regulations was delayed until the 2022 championship in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Once the delay was announced, teams were banned from carrying out any development of their 2022 cars during the 2020 calendar year.
Drivers were consulted on developing the new technical regulations, which were deliberately written to be restrictive so as to prevent teams from developing radical designs that limited the ability of drivers to overtake. The FIA created a specialist Working Group, or committee of engineers, tasked with identifying and closing loopholes in the regulations before their publication. The elimination of loopholes will, in theory, stop one team from having a dominant car, and in turn allow for closer competition throughout the field while improving the aesthetics of the cars. This philosophy was a major aim of the new regulations.

Aerodynamics and bodywork

The technical regulations will allow for the reintroduction of ground effect. This will coincide with a simplification of the cars' bodywork, making the underside of the car the primary source of aerodynamic grip. This aims to reduce the turbulent air in the cars' wake to allow drivers to follow each other more closely whilst still maintaining a similar level of downforce compared to previous years. Further changes to the aerodynamics are aimed at limiting the teams' ability to control airflow around the front wheels and further reduce the cars' aerodynamic wake. This includes the elimination of bargeboards, the complex aerodynamic devices that manipulate airflow around the body of the car. The front wing and endplates will be simplified, reducing the number and complexity of aerodynamic elements. The front wing must also directly connect to the nosecone unlike pre-2021 designs where the wing could be connected to the nose via supports to create a space under the monocoque, thereby encouraging airflow under the car by way of the wing's larger surface area and the nose's increased height. The rear wings will be wider and mounted higher than in previous years, with additional restrictions in place to limit the teams' ability to use the car's exhaust gases to generate downforce and bodywork will be required to be coated in rubber to minimise the risk of components breaking off cars to minimise the risk of local yellow flags, safety cars and stoppages. Figures released by the Working Group revealed that where a -specification car following another car had just 55% of its normal levels of downforce available, a 2021-specification car following another car would have up to 86% of its normal levels of downforce.
Teams will be further restricted in the number of aerodynamic upgrades they can introduce to the car, both over the course of a race weekend and over the course of the championship. These rules were introduced to further cut the costs of competing. Following the decision to delay the 2021 regulations to 2022, aerodynamic development of the cars was banned from 28 March to the end of 2020.

Power units

Discussions over the 2021 engine regulations began in 2017 and were finalised in May 2018. The proposed regulations involved removing the Motor Generator Unit–Heat to simplify the technology used in the engine whilst raising the maximum rev limit by 3000 rpm. Further proposals dubbed "plug-and-play" would see engine suppliers bound by the regulations to make individual engine components universally compatible, allowing teams to source their components from multiple suppliers.
Manufacturers will also be subject to a similar regulation concerning commercially available materials as chassis constructors. The proposals were designed to simplify the engine technology whilst making the sport more attractive to new entrants. However, as no new power unit suppliers committed themselves to entering the sport from 2021, the existing suppliers proposed to retain the existing power unit formula in a bid to reduce overall development costs.
The quota system of power unit components will continue in 2021, with teams given a limited number of individual components that can be used before incurring a penalty. The exhaust system will be added to the list of components, with teams allowed to use a maximum of six over the course of the championship.

Standardised components

The sport intends to introduce a series of standardised components from 2022, with the regulations calling for the standard components to be in place until 2024. These standardised components include the gearbox and fuel system. Some aerodynamic components—such as the tray that sits at the front of the car floor—will also be standardised so as to restrict teams' ability to develop the area and gain a competitive advantage. Individual parts will now be classified as a way of clarifying the rules surrounding them:
The system of categorising parts was introduced to allow for design freedom as the overhaul to the aerodynamic regulations was highly-prescriptive.

Tyres

The championship will move from 13-inch to 18-inch wheels. It was originally proposed that the use of tyre warmers—electric blankets designed to keep the tyres at the optimal operating temperature when not in use—will be banned, although this decision was later reversed after opposition from the tyre supplier Pirelli. Tyre warmers will instead become a standardised piece of equipment, with all teams required to use the same product with a view to eventually phase them out altogether.