2022 Formula One: Ranking the best looking cars
It is only three weeks until the first race of the 2022 Formula One season is here and after months of waiting all ten teams have released their cars for this season. It should be an interesting season as there are plenty of new regulations for the cars that teams must follow. These changes had to be pushed back a year due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and should result in the biggest change of cars between seasons since 2009 when slick tires were reintroduced and the front wing was drastically altered. The new regulations should make it a much more even racing field after eight years of Mercedes dominating the constructor’s championship. With the new regulations such as bigger tires and a much bigger front wing come new car designs as well and here is my ranking of all ten teams’ car liveries.
10. Haas
An already unexciting car lost even more following the removal of their main sponsor Uralkali and the red and blue stripes. The removal of the colors and logo came in the aftermath of Russia invading Ukraine since Uralkali is a Russian company owned by Dimitry Mazepin, father of Haas driver Nikita Mazepin. The car that was run the last day of testing was all white with Haas down the side and on the rear wing. The VF-22 was the first livery to be released for the 2022 Formula One season and looks even blander now that much of the color has been removed. It fits Haas perfectly, a boring car for a boring team that was the only one to not win a single point in 2021.
9. AlphaTauri
The AT03 has a nice design to it but overall is not that good. I like how the front wing has Alpha on one side and Tauri on the other but similar to Haas the coloring just looks bland. The navy blue and white does nothing to pop or stand out. Plus it looks very similar to AlphaTauri’s car from last season in terms of color.
8. Red Bull
It is not that Red Bull’s RB18 does not look slick, it is more that the color scheme is virtually identical to that of the car they used in the 2021 season. I was really hoping for a little bit more from Red Bull for the 2022 Formula One season, especially after Max Verstappen won the driver’s championship in thrilling fashion last year. It was a very tough decision between Red Bull and the next team for the 7th and 8th spots on this list, but due to Red Bull not looking different enough they fell to the lower spot.
7. Alfa Romeo
The very last car to be launched for the 2022 Formula One season was Alfa Romeo’s. What Alfa Romeo had planned for their C42 has been kept very secretive and was not even shown during pre-season testing this past week. With all that secrecy I was slightly disappointed in what was released. This car has been in the works since 2020 with the initial plan to use it for the 2021 season. The 2022 season will be Alfa Romeo’s 30th as a team in Formula One and as a celebration, the car has detail from the past and looks clean overall. The red and white colors are flipped from last season’s car while the dragon on the body was replaced by big cursive letters spelling out “Alfa Romeo.” My favorite aspect of this car is the rear wing which gives homage to Italy, the country that Alfa Romeo is from, with the Italian flag painted on the backside of the wing with the team’s name in the middle.
6. McLaren
McLaren moved to a much lighter blue that stands out much more on the car for the 2022 Formula One season. This baby blue goes well with the orange but not as well as the darker blue from last year. The simplistic look of the car is not bad on the MCL36. The newish look could very well be seen contending for a place in the top three by the end of the season.
5. Mercedes
The silver arrow is back. After a few years in black Mercedes has switched back to silver which looked great at testing. The silver stands out much more than the black of last year which still looked decent. The teal color on both the front and rear wings seems to pop on the car. Another detail that was tweaked for the F1 W13 was that instead of the word “AMG” spread across the back part of the car the Mercedes logo is there. Maybe a return to silver will be what Lewis Hamilton needs to return to Formula One gold after a devastating second place last year.
4. Williams
Williams have a new driver in Alexander Albon for the 2022 Formula One season and a completely new-looking car. The FW44 is completely blue with no white front wing and has a hint of orange edging the design. The design on the back part of the body has switched from stripes to diamonds of varying shades of blue with a much smaller Williams logo which also went from white to a light blue. This is a much nicer-looking car than they ran a season ago.
3. Alpine
Alpine got a new sponsor this offseason and in return also got a new color for their two cars that will be seen on the track this season. The French team’s new title sponsor is BWT who last sponsored Racing Point in 2020. The notable thing about the Racing Point car in 2020 was the bright pink that covered the car. This will be the same on the Alpine A522 whose secondary car will be that same pink color with some blue lettering for the sponsors and number. This pink car will be used in the first two races of the season before Alpine goes to their main car design. The main car design that Alpine will use is navy blue with pink on both wings and side plates. The pink on navy blue pops out much more than the red used last year.
2. Aston Martin
Aston Martin’s AMR22 for the 2022 Formula One season was very close to being number one on this list due in a large part to the addition of bright yellow to the livery. The yellow trim is all over the green car highlighting the curves of the car. Green cars always seem to fit in Formula One well whether that be Aston Martin, Lotus, or Jaguar the racing green color just looks proper on a car. What also stood out to me was that there appeared to be vents on top of the side part of the body that were not noticeable on any other car.
1. Ferrari
The red and black go perfectly together on Ferrari’s latest car. The F1-75 is my favorite car from every angle. For starters, the wings a year ago were the same red as the rest of the car, but in 2022 those are solid black with no lettering on them. This looks classy with a slightly brighter shade of red covering the rest of the car. The wings also were not the only spot where black now sits as the racer’s number switched from black to white. Something else that made the car look great was the removal of the green arrows that were on last season’s car. Ferrari was one of the surprises of testing and look to make a run at Mercedes and Red Bull.
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