New wheel fairings could limit drivers’ sight lines at street circuits – Norris

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In the round-up: Lando Norris believes new wheel fairings on 2022 F1 cars could block drivers’ sightlines into corners on street circuits.

In brief

New wheel fairings could limit drivers’ sight at street circuits – Norris

Lando Norris has explained that the new 18-inch wheels on Formula 1 cars for 2022 and the compulsory wheel fairings may limit drivers’ sight lines into corners, especially at street circuits.

With McLaren having launched the new MCL36 ahead of the new season, Norris said that drivers will have only three days each of running over two three day pre-season tests to get used to all the characteristics of the new cars.

“It’s not a lot,” said Norris. “It’s still three days to get back into the feeling of a Formula 1 car and to then get back into the feeling of a new one that’s going to handle probably very differently, feel very different when you’re driving and so on. Also look different – literally, you have to get used to these fairings on the tyres.

“For certain tracks, it might be extremely different like Singapore or Monaco. One of my friends who’s in F2 said that they have to put cones on top of the barriers in places because the barriers were lower than the new tyres that we have, and that they can’t actually see where the barrier is, because the car looks higher than the barriers. We’ll have to get used to the size of it, the front wing and how big that is and so on.”

FIA to report Abu Dhabi analysis findings to F1 Commission

The FIA will deliver the findings of their “detailed analysis” into the conclusion of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the F1 Commission meeting in London today.

FIA president, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, directed the governing body’s secretary general for sport, Peter Bayer, to conduct a formal investigation into the controversial Safety Car restart on the final lap of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The initial findings from the investigation will be presented today to the F1 Commission, a representative group of stakeholders connected to Formula 1, including some of the teams who represent the interests of all ten competitors in the championship.

The FIA will announce their final decisions and actions arising from the investigation at the meeting of the World Motor Sport Council in Bahrain on Friday 18th March – the day of first practice for the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

Final IndyCar preseason test gets underway at Sebring

The final preseason test ahead of this year’s IndyCar Series will begin today at the Sebring International Raceway in Florida.

All 26 full-season drivers due to compete in this year’s championship will participate over the two day test.

Not all teams will take part in the second day of running, with Andretti, McLaren SP, Chip Ganassi, RLL and Penske all set to run in today’s session only.

The IndyCar season will begin in St. Petersburg on Sunday 27th February.

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Sebastian Vettel, Lance Stroll, Aston Martin, Gaydon, 2022

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Ian McDonald

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Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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17 comments on “New wheel fairings could limit drivers’ sight lines at street circuits – Norris”

  1. Lewisham Milton
    14th February 2022, 0:33

    Crunch! “Sorry mate, lost you behind my wheel fairing…”

  2. Going to await the FIA report with interest. I suspect that at the end of the day nothing will change but there’ll be lots of words in the report that in essence will say “everything’s fine but we’ll keep an eye on things”

    1. That’s what I’m expecting, too, though I’m keeping everything crossed that it isn’t a whitewash.

    2. I’m thinking it might be more along the lines that “we did absolutely nothing wrong, but anyway, here are some recommendations to ensure that this thing that did not happen never happens again”. Hopefully I’m wrong.

  3. Formula E drivers have more to complain about than this little fairing :)

  4. Fair concern from Lando. The compromise on tyres thickness between FIA and the team already make it too high. I can accept mid season regulation change to get rid of that silly thing.

    1. I seriously doubt that would happen. It would likely require pretty significant changes to every aero package on the grid if removed.

    2. I think Max said also that the wheels blocking the apex making it harder.

      Does Lando doesn’t drive for Redcline anymore?

    3. I wonder if the fairings make the damage to the car more destructive should someone lose his front wing. They usually drive over it or it somehow gets stuck in the front wheels – now with the fairings the damage of losing a front wing might be greater and more hazardous?

  5. Mercedes referring to their team as a franchise made me do a little sick in my mouth. Gone are the days of Frank Williams and Colin Chapman etc

    1. Luckily not all teams have Mercedes approach to the sport. Plenty teams that still do it for the love of and not for Marketing

      1. Extremely hypocritical for you to complain about Mercedes when you support Red Bull, given that the explicit reason for that team existing is for marketing a specific product. The cognitive dissonance is spectacular…

      2. Plenty teams that still do it for the love of and not for Marketing

        Who?
        I’d suggest the three teams that entered in 2010 would classify as such, but they don’t exist anymore.
        A few of the current teams used to be in F1 for love – but they’ve since been bought out and/or taken over for marketing purposes.

    2. That’s in a job listing for someone in marketing. I seriously doubt many within the team consider themselves a “sports franchise”, but that’s the kind of language that those they want applying for the role will be used to.

    3. It’s the language of the person they are hoping to attract. Marketing is full of these fluffy words.

  6. True, the 18-inches could limit sight to an extent, but I’m sure everyone can still keep pushing on the limit like before.

    Matt Bishop is spot-on & I always keep reservations on rumors until a matter becomes official anyway, assuming a given rumor proves true in the end, which doesn’t always happen like here.

    The SC review video is good, even though I’ve only taken a brief look thus far.

    1. I read that Stroll said the grip on the tyres is immediate and with no warning. But time will tell.

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