Post 2021 Season Testing

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/bottas-makes-alfa-romeo-f1-debut-as-post-season-testing-begins/6883758/

Formula 1 News
Bottas makes Alfa Romeo F1 debut as post-season testing begins
By: Luke Smith
Dec 14, 2021, 2:19 AM
Valtteri Bottas hit the track for the first time in an Alfa Romeo Formula 1 car on Tuesday as post-season testing got underway in Abu Dhabi.
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The two-day test at the Yas Marina Circuit will see teams complete running with young drivers, who will drive 2021 cars, and with existing F1 drivers using modified mule cars to test Pirelli’s 2022 18-inch tyres.

Bottas was given permission by Mercedes to take part in the test with Alfa Romeo, and made his first appearance on Tuesday morning at the start of the morning session. He will not become an official Alfa Romeo driver until next year.

George Russell will take part in both days of testing for Mercedes, with Formula E champion Nyck de Vries completing the team’s young driver running.

Pato O’Ward is making his F1 test debut with McLaren as a prize for his first IndyCar victory earlier this year for the Arrow McLaren SP squad.

The Mexican driver, who finished third in the 2021 IndyCar championship, completed a seat fit and simulator running a couple of months ago in preparation for the test, and spent the weekend with McLaren in Abu Dhabi.

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Patricio O'Ward, McLaren MCL35M

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Bottas’s future team-mate, Guanyu Zhou, will feature on both days of testing for Alfa Romeo.

He is driving the 2021 car on 13-inch tyres on Tuesday before switching to the mule car for Wednesday’s running, taking over from Bottas.

Red Bull junior and DTM championship runner-up Liam Lawson is also making his F1 test debut in Abu Dhabi, driving for AlphaTauri. Juri Vips will complete the young driver running for the senior Red Bull team.

American youngster Logan Sargeant is making his first test appearance for Williams, which is not running a mule car after previously opting to build one.

Sargeant will race in F2 next season and is a member of Williams’ young driver academy.

Tuesday also marked Max Verstappen's first F1 appearance as world champion following his victory in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.

He will be testing on Tuesday in the mule car before handing over to Sergio Perez for Wednesday.

F1 Post-Season Test - Day 1 Line-Up
Mercedes: George Russell and Nyck de Vries
Red Bull: Max Verstappen and Juri Vips
Ferrari: Charles Leclerc (AM), Antonio Fuoco, Robert Shwartzman (PM)
McLaren: Daniel Ricciardo and Pato O’Ward
Alpine: Esteban Ocon and Oscar Piastri
AlphaTauri: Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson
Aston Martin: Lance Stroll and Nick Yelloly
Williams: Logan Sargeant
Alfa Romeo: Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou
Haas: Mick Schumacher

 

They are using Russell at Mercedes. Nothing 'notable' at all.

 

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/mclaren-trials-led-wheel-cover-lights-in-f1-post-season-testing/6885148/

McLaren trials LED wheel cover lights in F1 post-season testing
By: Luke Smith
Dec 15, 2021, 3:10 AM
McLaren trialled an LED light system on its rear wheel covers during post-season testing in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, offering a sign of future Formula 1 technology.
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During the opening run of Wednesday’s test session at the Yas Marina Circuit, wheel covers were fitted to the rear wheels of Lando Norris’s McLaren car that featured LED lights.

Norris completed only one flying lap using the LED light wheel covers before returning to the pits, after which they were removed for his subsequent running.

It nevertheless served as a taste of future technology that could be introduced to the series in the future. The lights could potentially be used either for team marketing purposes or to provide information such as car position.

 

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/russell-strange-feeling-making-mercedes-return-in-post-season-testing/6885298/

Russell: ‘Strange feeling’ making Mercedes return in post-season testing
By: Luke Smith
Dec 15, 2021, 7:03 AM
George Russell said it was a “strange feeling” to make his return to Mercedes in Formula 1 post-season testing ahead of racing full-time for the team next year.
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Russell featured in both days of the post-season running at the Yas Marina Circuit this week, driving a modified Mercedes W10 from 2019 to sample Pirelli’s 18-inch tyres for 2022.

It marked Russell’s first outing for Mercedes since his stand-in appearance for Lewis Hamilton at the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix, when he came close to winning on debut for the team.

Mercedes announced in September that Russell would be joining full-time for 2022, stepping up after three years with Williams to replace the outgoing Valtteri Bottas.

“It’s a strange feeling, because I’ve tested with the team numerous times after races, end of season, and here we are again,” Russell said after his first day of testing in Abu Dhabi.

“But obviously it’s my first time as an official driver for the team. It was a really great day to be back with the guys, and learning about the new tyres.

“It’s always a pleasant experience driving a world championship-winning car, the 2019 Mercedes, and with these 18-inch Pirellis, which seem to be reacting pretty positively. It was a nice day.”

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George Russell, Mercedes

Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images

Teams were permitted to field their modified mule cars on both days of testing in Abu Dhabi, giving them a chance to get to grips with the new tyres, which are part of the overhaul of the technical regulations for 2022.

The new 18-inch tyres are a marked change from the current 13-inch tyres, with smaller sidewalls giving them different characteristics.

“It felt pretty nice to drive, to be honest,” Russell said of the new 18-inch tyre.

“It’s going to be very different next year, as the cars are going to be drastically changed compared to these current cars. So there’s not an awful lot you can take away from it.

“Nevertheless, they do react pretty differently to the 13-inch tyres that we’ve raced on previously.

“Let’s hope that carries through to next year and see how they react with the new regulations.”

 

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/what-we-learned-about-pirellis-new-18-inch-tyres-at-abu-dhabi/6909472/

Formula 1 / Post Season Testing News
What we learned about Pirelli’s new 18-inch tyres at Abu Dhabi
By: Adam Cooper
Dec 19, 2021, 9:30 AM
The fallout of the closing laps of the Abu Dhabi completely overshadowed some important Formula 1 track action that took place on the Tuesday and Wednesday after the race.
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The comparative times may have been meaningless given that mule cars of varying vintages were in use, but the Pirelli 18-inch tyre test was a key session for teams and drivers as they prepare for the new era in 2022.

All the teams taking part had already sampled the new tyres when they participated in Pirelli’s development testing earlier in the year. As time, the tyres being tried got closer to the final versions for those whose sessions were later in the year.

However Abu Dhabi was the first time that all teams – bar Williams who opted out of making a mule car for budgetary reasons – were able to sample the definitive 2022 tyres, across the range of all five new compounds.

Pirelli hasn’t told us much about the earlier testing or how its new tyres were performing, but after Abu Dhabi the company’s F1 boss gave some interesting insights into what we can expect.

"They had available all the new range of compounds, and they used all the new compounds on many laps, short runs, long runs,” Isola explained.

“I have to say that in general, we found first of all the delta lap time between compounds in line with our tyre development tests.

"So I can say that this number is quite in line with our findings during the year, and during our tyre development tests. Clearly the C1 and C2 are not the best compounds for Abu Dhabi, it’s a low severity circuit where we use mainly the C3, C4 and C5.

“So in general, for C1 and C2, the comment was that the grip was low, but they were very, very consistent.”

One clear characteristic stood out: "I can say that the general comment from all the drivers was about understeer, it seems that our rear tyre is much stronger, it's pushing a lot the front. And the general feedback was on an understeer balance.

“Consider that using the mule cars the possibility to adjust the set-up was limited. So in some cases, even if the teams were working around the set-up of the car, the cars were still understeering, because of this strength of the rear tyre.”

Isola is confident that understeer will be less of an issue with the proper 2022 cars.

"Talking to the teams, they believe that they can balance the new cars quite easily. They told me that they are not worried at all about the understeer, and they knew that with the new cars, they were expecting a bit of that. So they seem to be not worried at all."

After the first day of the Abu Dhabi test Pirelli made a change to the parameters it had given the teams in attempt to dial out some of that understeer.

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Lando Norris, McLaren MCL35M Mule

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

“Looking at the data that we got from the teams, we saw a margin in the pressure, especially in the front pressure,” said Isola.

“So we added the possibility to decrease the front pressure for today by 1.5 psi. That was useful to reduce the understeer, obviously giving more footprint on the front and reducing the graining, especially on the C3.

“We still have some abrasion and graining on the C4 and C5, but they are the softest compounds, so it makes sense. But with this reduction in pressure is C3 was working better.”

That front pressure drop was from 21.5 to 20.0 psi, while Isola confirmed that the rears stayed at a low 17.5 for the two days.

As a comparison for the race weekend the respective numbers were 23.0 front, and 21.0 rear. In other words, we will get used to seeing much lower starting pressures.

“We know that with the new sides, the 18-inches, the rear construction is in terms of integrity is more robust,” said Isola. “And this is why we have the possibility to drop the pressure to 17.5. That is quite low also compared to the 13-inches tyre.”

Aside from low starting pressures teams also have to get used to the lower blanket temperatures mandated for 2022, and which in turn impact how drivers warm up the tyres once they’re on track.

"We are using the blanket temperature that we decided to introduce from 2022,” said Isola. “That means that the front tyres are heated at 70 degrees, and not 100, and the rear tyres are at 70 degrees, and not 80. So from next year, the maximum temperature in blankets with be 70 and 70.

“That is the same temperature that we have used during our tyre development tests. The comments from drivers were on the C1, in some cases, they had to push quite a lot to get the temperature into the tyre. So that means a couple of laps to have the tyres ready. But we know that the C1 is not the tyre for Abu Dhabi.

“For the C2 it was a bit easier. And from C3, C4 and C5, they didn't complain about the warm up, they didn't have any issue on warm-up.

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Sebastian Vettel, Aston Martin AMR21 Mule

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

“This year we tried to design the new compounds with a wider working range, but without sacrificing too match the warm-up phase, because we knew that we wanted to go down with temperature in the blankets. So that is a confirmation of what we found during the tyre tests."

Isola also noted: “Looking only at the grip the tyre is in line with the 13-inches, but they are more consistent because of this new family of compounds, and the way in which we have designed the compounds."

One big difference between the mule cars and the definitive 2022 machines concerns the brakes and the drums that surround them.

“We have asked the teams to use maximum cooling for both front and rears,” said Isola. “Because looking at the simulations next year with the flows that are going inside, they shouldn't be able to use the heat coming from the brakes to heat the rim.

"There is a lot more space, but also the brakes are designed with different flows. Now we are also evaluating another characteristic of next year's brakes, because between the rim and the brake you have a space where you have air at a certain temperature, so depending if you seal that or not, you can have different temperatures.

“But this year during the tyre test, we told them to use maximum cooling. The point was that starting from 21.5 psi front but with a blanket temperature that is is 30 degrees lower compared to this year, the pressure increase was quite high.

“So basically the running pressure - I don't tell you the number because I don't want to release confidential information from any team - but consider that they were running a good number of psi, 4-5 psi higher than the starting pressure, because of this delta in the blanket temperature.

"Next year with a new type of drums, a new type of brakes, I believe they are in a much better position to control the heat that is going from the brakes to the tyre and also the blanket temperature that is starting at 70."

Another novelty for 2022 will be rim covers: "Some teams decided to test the rim cover in some runs, but these tests are not really representative. First of all, because the brakes are not the 2022 brakes.

“So, if you fit the wheel cover, you have the temperature that is increasing quite a lot, and the heat exchange between the brake and the rim is not really manageable, as they will do next year with the new brakes that are not transferring the heat from the brake to the rim.”

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Ferrari SF90 mule brake detail

Photo by: Giorgio Piola

One of the main targets for the 18-inch tyres was to reduce problems with overheating, a characteristic which has bugged Pirelli for years, and left drivers frustrated. Isola is confident that the company has addressed the issue.

“The drivers commented that they can push,” he said. “Let's take the C3 as a reference, that is probably the more representative, the level of grip is good. And they can push without having overheating or degradation, or better than the 13-inches tyre.

“Honestly, I'm curious to see how the tyres work on next year's cars, because I believe they are different also, the the aero package is so different. Also, the level of downforce that you have at different speeds will be different. So we need to understand how they work with the new aero package.

“Probably, I can imagine that they will have less downforce in slow speed corners, and higher downforce at high speed. And so that is making a change in the balance of one lap.

“And this is impossible to test with the mule cars, because they have the same configuration used when they have been designed, so they don't have the ground effect that is on the new cars.”

So aside from the aforementioned understeer, what else did the drivers discover?

“It's a bit more difficult in braking, easier to lock sometimes,” said Isola. “They felt the weight of the tyres, each front rim is 2.5kgs heavier than the 13-inches, and the rear is 3kgs heavier than the 13-inches tyre. So they felt this on the steering wheel.

“They reported a very good straight line traction. In some cases some snap oversteer, that is in line with the fact that with the understeer you tend to use more steering angle, and when you lose the grip from the rear, it's more snappy. So it's quite coherent with the other comments.”

Cars that are more difficult to drive? That gels with comments from drivers who have run the new models in simulators. And that kind of challenge can’t be a bad thing...