Magazine: F1 2022 guide and preview special

The wait is finally over and we’ll get to see the cars of F1’s new era battling it out in anger. There are lots of questions about the 2022 season – ranging from how good the racing will be in this new ground-effect age to who will set the pace – and we tackle many of them in this week’s 108-page special.

Mercedes appears to be on the back foot, thanks to severe porpoising issues, but Max Verstappen and Red Bull could still have a fight on their hands if Ferrari’s strong testing form continues into the racing.

Alex Kalinauckas gives his analysis of the Bahrain test, Matt Kew assesses all the cars from trackside, and technical editor Jake Boxall-Legge looks at the surprising challenges thrown up by the new rules.

We also look at the threats facing seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton in 2022 and hear from Sebastian Vettel as he starts his second campaign with Aston Martin. Luke Smith outlines the political drama that has taken place since the controversial 2021 Abu Dhabi GP finale, while championship-winning engineer Tim Wright gives an overview of each squad in our team-by-team guide.

Formula 2, F3 and the World Endurance Championship also all kick off this weekend. Megan White talks to reigning F3 champion Dennis Hauger about his chances of repeating Oscar Piastri’s feat of taking the F2 title as a rookie, as well as three Brits hoping for success in F3 this year.

Gary Watkins delves into Penske’s LMP2 challenge as it gears up to run Porsche’s WEC and IMSA programmes and picks out the likely frontrunners from the Hypercar, LMP2 and GTE classes.

The UK racing season has already started and we cover the Silverstone Britcar meeting and all the usual news, while Marcus Pye gets on track with three very special ‘saloons’