F1 2022 Testing, Day 1: What did we learn?

The F1 2022 season finally got underway with the latest iteration of F1 cars making their first appearance on the track. On the first official day out for the new generation of cars, it was interesting to see how different each looked from the stock ones that had been put on display during the car launches.

Having said that, the new cars do look great on the track. It was refreshing to see the F1 cars back on track for the first time since December last season.

In this piece, we take a look at what we learned from the first day of running for this new generation of F1 cars.

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#1 The new generation of F1 cars is fast

Lando Norris' fastest time of the day was just 3 seconds slower than the time set by Lewis Hamilton when scoring pole at Barcelona in 2021. With teams on a steeper learning curve compared to previous seasons, there is scope for this time to improve even further. In doing so, it could put to rest the initial claims that the new generation of cars could be significantly slower than the previous generations.

So far, teams have been able to adapt to the regulations and bring their versions of solutions to the track that seem much more advanced than initially expected.

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#2 Red Bull looks... different

One team that caught the eye of everyone across the grid was Red Bull. The car's sidepods were different from everyone else's. Now, whether this results in achieving the final goal of downforce is a question we don't yet have an answer to. What was obvious, however, was that Red Bull has put together a car that, by the looks of it, already incorporates some positives from other cars as well (Ferrari's sidepod configuration being one of them).

Their 2022 F1 challenger was reliable and completed more than 100 laps throughout the day. Now it remains to be seen if its striking features are the magic bullet that will propel it towards the front of the grid.

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#3 No big surprises/shocks early on

In what was a rather interesting turn of events, there weren't too many surprises across the grid. No team put together a surprise innovation, like a DAS or a double diffuser, that left everyone on the grid scratching their heads. Nor did anyone come up with an entirely tangential understanding of the regulations that led to a strange design approach on any machinery.

To add to this, most teams were able to complete the runs for the day in a rather uneventful way.

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#4 Alfa Romeo/Haas in a slight spot of bother

32 and 43 are the exact number of laps put together by Alfa Romeo and Haas respectively. The former, with two new drivers and what would seemingly be a new livery for the season, suffered two separate disruptions due to breakage on a "small part". The disruptions limited its run to just 32 laps overall, while rival teams racked up more than 100 laps.

For Haas, a cooling leak and flood damage were the primary disruptors. In a season where the learning curve is expected to be steep, every lap is crucial to gain an understanding of this new iteration of F1 cars. Will the disrupted day affect the teams in the future? Maybe not. Teams, however, can't afford to make missteps from now on.

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#5 No picture about the pecking order

The usual suspects seem to have produced a good car. Teams like Ferrari, Mercedes, Red Bull, and McLaren have come up with their own unique solutions. The solutions might differ, but how competitive each of these is, is yet to be determined.

The first day didn't involve many long runs as the teams focussed on getting the set-up right and trying to understand their car better. A slightly better picture will emerge once the teams are confident about their understanding of the machinery and then start pushing their machinery. Until then, it's hard to predict where each machinery stands as compared to the rest.