Image courtesy: https://www.formula1.com

In comparison, 2022 cars have a neutral design on the front and rear wings. In addition to this, the ban on ground effect was lifted. This design suffers less aerodynamic drag at high speeds but generates lesser downforce at low speeds. Also, the rear wing design is modified to channel the turbulent air coming out at the rear end of a car in the upward direction so that it doesn't affect the stability of cars following it. This is meant to allow the cars to follow more closely resulting in hard racing.

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2. Added weight:

The minimum weight of the cars is increased from 752 to 790 kilograms.

3. E10 fuel:

To meet the goals of sustainable racing, the fuel used in the 2022 season has 10% ethanol. This resulted in some loss of power.

Due to these changes, the 2022 F1 cars are slower by 1.2 seconds per lap on an average. The decrease in speed and increase in lap times vary from circuit to circuit.

Analysis of F1 Telemetry data

The following chart shows a comparison of the performance of 2021 & 2022 Red Bull F1 cars driven by Max Verstappen during the Qualifiers of the Austin, Texas US Grand Prix. Max's car was chosen for the analysis because he was the winner of the main races on both occasions. For the analysis, the Circuit of the Americas(COTA) is divided into several mini sectors, each 50 meters in length and the chart shows the faster Red Bull car in the different mini sectors.

It is evident from the chart that the 2022 car is slower through the low speed corners but faster on straights and through high speed corners. Low speed corners are those in which the driver has to lift off the throttle and brake whereas in a high speed corner, the driver barely lifts.

The 2022 car is faster on a straight line because it suffers lower aerodynamic drag and therefore can reach a higher top speed. Even though the regulation changes reduced the high speed drag, it also reduced the downforce generated at lower speeds leading to lower traction. This meant that the 2022 car cannot attack the low speed corners as much as its predecessor and the driver has to lift off the throttle early into the corner. Also, the driver is unable to go full throttle early at the corner exits due to lower downforce. This makes the 2022 car slower at corner entries, through the corners and at corner exits.

Due to its high downforce setup, the 2021 car was able to brake late into the low speed corners and attack early at the corner exits, making them faster through these corners.

In the Qualifiers at Austin, Max's 2022 car was slower than his 2021 car by 1.538 seconds as the time gained on straights was not sufficient enough to compensate for the time lost in the corners.