Alfa Romeo has unveiled their challenger for the 2022 Formula 1 season. Called the C42, the car’s reveal was so far apart from the other teams’ that they actually ran it in camouflage at this past week’s pre-season testing in Barcelona.
The C42 will be driven by Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou, both of whom are new to the team for 2022. Bottas moved from Mercedes, replacing a retiring Kimi Raikkonen, while Zhou is moving up from Formula 2 to replace Antonio Giovinazzi.
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The car’s livery sticks with Alfa’s red and white color scheme that they’ve been using since 2018, but this year they’ve gone simpler and more retro with the design. Contrary to previous years, which featured bodywork-following designs with a large Alfa Romeo logo drawn in the negative space, they’ve elected to go with simple straight lines cutting across the car and retro Alfa Romeo script in place of the logo. Other details include red and white painted wheel covers and an Italian flag on the underside of the rear wing.
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Aside from the striking livery, like almost every other car on the 2022 grid, the C42 also displays some unique physical traits. Some notable features include a wavy nose and front wing, split center intake, and pushrod rear suspension. Like the Haas VF-22 (the real version of which we got to see out on track this week), the C42 has wide undercut side pods with air outlet vents, the size of which are only exacerbated by the fact that they’re left as bare black carbon. The fact that both cars would have similar packaging makes sense, though, given that both teams are using Ferrari powertrains.
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“The start of the season is always an exciting time, one in which we see the fruit of the work of hundreds of people over a long period of time,” said Frédéric Vasseur, Team Principal of Alfa Romeo F1 Team. “The C42 is a car we look forward to seeing racing, not just because it is the first we built in this new regulations cycle, one in which racing should be closer and more thrilling, but because we have the utmost confidence in this car helping the team make a big step forward towards the front of the grid.”
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