2022 Formula One World Championship

Panthera Team Asia announced their intention to join the grid in 2022.[10] The team had planned to enter the championship in 2021, but was forced to delay their plans because of the COVID-19 pandemic.[11]

The 2022 World Championship is due to see an overhaul of the technical regulations.[30] These changes had been planned for introduction in 2021, with teams developing their cars throughout 2020. However, the introduction of the regulations was delayed until the 2022 championship in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.[1] Once the delay was announced, teams were banned from carrying out any development of their 2022 cars during the 2020 calendar year.[31]

Drivers were consulted on developing the new technical regulations,[32] which were deliberately written to be restrictive so as to prevent teams from developing radical designs that limited the ability of drivers to overtake.[33] 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.[34]

The technical regulations will allow for the reintroduction of ground effect.[35][lower-alpha 2] 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.[36] This includes the elimination of bargeboards, the complex aerodynamic devices that manipulate airflow around the body of the car.[37] 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 2019-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.[38]

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.[39][40] 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.

Discussions over the 2021 engine regulations began in 2017 and were finalised in May 2018.[41][42] The proposed regulations involved removing the Motor Generator Unit–Heat (MGU-H) to simplify the technology used in the engine whilst raising the maximum rev limit by 3000 rpm.[43] 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.[44] 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.[45] 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.[46]

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.[39]

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.[47][48] 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 andvantage.[38] Individual parts will now be classified as a way of clarifying the rules surrounding them:[38]

• "Listed Parts" refers to the parts of the car that teams are required to design by themselves.
• "Standard Parts" is the name given to the parts of the car that all teams must use, including wheel rims and equipment used in pit stops.
• "Transferable Parts" are parts that a team can develop and sell on to another team, such as the gearbox and the clutch.
• "Prescribed Parts" are parts that teams are required to develop according to a prescriptive set of regulations. Prescribed parts include wheel arches and wheel aerodynamics.
• "Open-source Parts" may be developed collectively by teams and sold on to customers. Steering wheels and the DRS mechanism are listed as Open-source Parts.

The system of categorising parts was introduced to allow for design freedom as the overhaul to the aerodynamic regulations was highly-prescriptive.[38]

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,[49] although this decision was later reversed after opposition from the tyre supplier Pirelli.[50] 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.