WATCH: Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN Unveil Its New C42 Race Car!

The Alfa Romeo Formula One (F1) team, is ready for a big year. After announcing an identity reboot for the 2022 season, the new Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN is ready to unveil its all-new C42 race car. The new car is the first of a new era for the F1 series. 

The F1 rulebook has changed for the 2022 season. All F1 entries will run entries based on the new rules package, which is designed to make the racing closer and more competitive.

Changes include a new 18-inch wheel design, which is a huge change from the traditional 13-inch wheel that teams have run over the past three decades. The new wheels allow for a new series of Pirelli tires, which were extensively tested in the off-season. The new tires received positive feedback from drivers and offered less tire flex and less of an impact on the car’s aerodynamics. 

The cars will also feature new wheel covers that prevent F1 teams from redirecting air through the wheels. Over the wheel winglets were also introduced for the first time, to help direct the wake of the air coming off of the front wheels and direct the air away from the rear wing.

For 2022, the cars will also receive a change to the aerodynamics rulebook as well. This means a whole new form of aerodynamics will be used. Forget the huge disruptive aerodynamic appendages we have seen on F1 cars over the past three decades. The new era will allow for underfloor tunnels to generate downforce. This means the cars will no longer need lips, flaps, and scoops everywhere to make downforce, and will allow the cars following behind to be less disturbed from the cars in front of them.

The cars will also introduce more safety features than ever before. The new 2022 cars will have more stringent crash requirements. This means a car’s frontal impact test now requires the 2022 car to absorb 48% more energy from the previous car and a 15% increase in the rear impact test. Propulsion systems are also required to separate from the chassis, without exposing or rupturing the fuel tank in the event of a severe enough crash. 

Cars will also feature a longer front nose and stronger chassis sides to help deal with side impacts. But with all the improvement of safety, comes a weight penalty. So, the new F1 cars will be heavier. Minimum weight requirements for the cars will rise in 2022, from 752 kg (1,657 lbs.) to 790 kg (1,741 lbs.). So expect the new cars to be slightly slower than the 2021 cars. 

You can watch the official unveiling of the all-new C42 race car today, at 9:30 am CET (Central Europe Time) / 3:30 am EST (Eastern Standard Time) at the top of this page. The press conference will feature Team Principal, Frédéric Vasseur; Technical Director, Jan Monchaux; and the team’s drivers, Valtteri Bottas, Zhou Guanyu and Robert Kubica.

Stay tuned for a more detailed look at the car on MoparInsiders.com later.