Magazine: Lewis Hamilton ends his silence, IndyCar season preview

It took a while but, when Hamilton decided to end his silence, he did so with some strong, well-considered comments. Mercedes launched its 2022 F1 attack last week and, as Alex Kalinauckas shows, Hamilton did not mince his words concerning December’s controversial Abu Dhabi Grand Prix finale, or his desire to make sure the FIA changes result in real improvements.

Hamilton was also careful not to criticise Max Verstappen in the whole saga while at the same time saying that “we will obviously grow from our races and experiences we had last year”, indicating he hopes – or expects – a cleaner on-track fight this time around…

We look at how the events of 2021 are likely to influence Hamilton this year and hear his thoughts on the first campaign of a new F1 era.

Of course, many fans hope the battle at the front won’t just be about Mercedes and Red Bull in 2022. The Ferrari F1-75 certainly looks the part and, as Luke Smith discovers, there is an air of cautious optimism coming out of Maranello.

As well as looking at the latest Mercedes and Ferrari machines, our Technical Editor Jake Boxall-Legge casts his eye over the Alpine, Williams and Alfa Romeo contenders, as testing kicks off this week.

Also getting under way is the IndyCar season. David Malsher-Lopez investigates Romain Grosjean’s chances and picks out the main storylines in our preview.

The Daytona 500 was the big event last weekend and Charles Bradley reports on how Austin Cindric emerged from a crash-strewn NASCAR Cup debut for the Next Gen cars to win for Penske and Ford.

Race winner Austin Cindric, Team Penske, Ford Mustang

Photo by: Jasen Vinlove / NKP / Motorsport Images

This week also marks the return of our free Engineering supplement. The technical challenges of the World Rally Championship’s new hybrid era, Audi’s ground-breaking Dakar Rally contender and Lucas di Grassi’s take on the role of drivers as technology improves all feature in the 28-page special.

We’ll have an in-depth analysis of this week’s Barcelona F1 test in next week’s issue (3 March), so look out for our take on who has hit the mark and which teams have work to do.

For the best motorsport coverage, from F1 to Britain’s club-racing scene, why not get Autosport magazine delivered to your door each week? Subscribe today and never miss your weekly fix of motorsport.