New year, new rules, new cars

Formula 1 has been preparing for this new set of rules for a long time, and so have most of the teams. And contrary to what many were thinking, the cars do not look alike, they do look rather different from one another, and it’s not only the liveries but also the floors, the noses, the side pods, a welcome change to what seems to be a bright new future for the pinnacle of the sport.

Haas unveiled the brand new VF22 on day 1 at Barcelona, but due to the situation between Russia and Ukraine, they removed all Uralkali’s Branding Thursday night and presented a very clean, and surprisingly good-looking, white and black livery for the final day of testing.

Ferrari has been the talk in the paddock as their radical, albeit very beautiful, F1-75 seems to be one of the ones to beat this year. But we are cautious as it’s only early testing and there are so many unknowns yet to be discovered by everyone. Red Bull also presented a radical design. Mercedes went for a more traditional route, and the new W13, returning to a more traditional silver livery, is elegant in its lines.

Some say time does not mean anything during testing, nevertheless, it was the Silver Arrows setting the fastest times of the three days at Barcelona, with Lewis Hamilton a bit ahead of new teammate George Russell. But it was Scuderia Ferrari who did the most laps (439) with almost no issues whatsoever.

For the final afternoon of testing, Pirelli poured several gallons of water onto the track to try to simulate wet weather racing and test their appropriate tires.

Here is a collection of photographs from Pre-Season testing at sunny Barcelona (sorted by driver's first name):