Magazine: Who's hot and who's not in F1 2022 testing?

To no one’s surprise, Mercedes and Red Bull were quick out of the blocks, but there were also encouraging signs from McLaren and Ferrari. Can the two ‘sleeping giants’ of F1 take the challenge to the established leading duo?

Alex Kalinauckas assesses all this among the trends from Barcelona, as well as the midfield fight between Alpine, AlphaTauri, Aston Martin and the resurgent Williams squad, plus what looks at present to be a backmarker tussle between Alfa Romeo and Haas. And Alex even makes a throwaway sartorial critique of a famous team’s trousers…

Beyond that, Technical Editor Jake Boxall-Legge takes a look under the skin of the last of the true 2022 challengers to be revealed: the Red Bull RB18 and livery-changing Haas VF-22. And Luke Smith reports on the outbreak of F1 porpoising and the effect on the sport of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in our Pit & Paddock news pages.

Away from Spain, David Malsher-Lopez was in balmy Florida to report on the opening round of the IndyCar Series and a sensational win for Scott McLaughlin, while at the opposite end of the climate scale Tom Howard shivered in Sweden – but soon warmed up to a superb performance from Toyota’s rally victor Kalle Rovanpera.

The MotoGP and Supercars seasons are just around the corner, and these are respectively previewed by our two-wheeled addict Lewis Duncan and V8-powered resident Aussie Andrew van Leeuwen, while James Newbold takes a two-decade trip back in time with Allan McNish to look at the Scottish sportscar superstar’s one and only season in F1 with Toyota.

On the national scene, there’s been plenty of news as the 2022 campaign looms, and Stephen Lickorish chats to Team BRIT for the inspiring story of how it has taken two very deserving drivers into the British GT Championship for this season with a McLaren.

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