2012 Season

Driver changes

Kimi Räikkönen returns to Formula One after a two-year absence in rallying, joining Lotus F1 alongside Romain Grosjean — himself returning after a two-year absence as 2011 GP2 champion. Their predecessor lineup of Vitaly Petrov and Bruno Senna is disbanded: Senna moves to Williams, replacing Rubens Barrichello, who ends a 19-season Formula One career and moves to IndyCar.

Nico Hülkenberg returns to the grid with Force India, taking the seat vacated by Adrian Sutil after six years at the team. At Toro Rosso, both Jaime Alguersuari and Sébastien Buemi are replaced by newcomers Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Éric Vergne, the 2011 Formula Renault 3.5 runner-up. HRT replaces Vitantonio Liuzzi with Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan, both returning to the team. Marussia drops Jérôme d’Ambrosio in favour of Charles Pic, who finished fourth in the 2011 GP2 standings. Caterham adds Vitaly Petrov late in the off-season, replacing Jarno Trulli.

Team changes

Four teams enter 2012 under new identities. Team Lotus becomes Caterham F1 after Tony Fernandes purchased Caterham Cars. Renault rebrands as Lotus F1 after Lotus Cars expanded its title sponsorship. Virgin Racing is renamed Marussia F1 as Marussia Motors increases its ownership stake. Mercedes GP adopts the Mercedes AMG Petronas name to reflect its performance sub-brand.

The Sahara Group purchases a 42.5% stake in Force India, valued at $100 million. Williams switches from Cosworth to Renault engines for 2012 and 2013. Peter Sauber steps down as team principal; Monisha Kaltenborn is appointed his successor, becoming the first woman to serve as team principal in Formula One. At HRT, Colin Kolles departs and is replaced by Luis Pérez-Sala.

Calendar

The 2012 season runs to 20 races — a new record, surpassing the 19-race schedules of 2005 and 2011. The United States Grand Prix returns for the first time since 2007, held at the new Circuit of the Americas near Austin, Texas. The Bahrain Grand Prix is reinstated after its 2011 cancellation due to civil unrest. The Turkish Grand Prix is dropped following a contract dispute with FOM. The German Grand Prix rotates back to the Hockenheimring, alternating with the Nürburgring.

Regulation changes

The most significant technical change is a blanket ban on off-throttle blown diffusers. Teams must reposition exhausts higher and away from the diffuser — a system that had given Red Bull a sizeable aerodynamic advantage in 2011. The maximum nose height is lowered from 62.5 cm to 55 cm, producing distinctive stepped “platypus” nose designs across the grid. Reactive ride-height systems — hydraulic devices that adjusted ride height during racing — are banned. The “joker” free gearbox change is removed; gearboxes must now last five races without exception.

On the sporting side, a four-hour maximum race duration is introduced, a response to the rain-interrupted 2011 Canadian Grand Prix. One day of in-season testing at Mugello on 1 May is approved, with a 15-day seasonal testing limit. Lapped cars are permitted to unlap themselves before a safety car restart. DRS use is prohibited during yellow flag periods.

Pirelli revises its tyre compounds: the predicted gap between the hardest and softest compounds narrows to approximately 0.7 seconds per lap, down from 1.5 seconds in 2011, and the delta in compound hardness falls from 70% to 31%.

Pre-season testing

Three pre-season test sessions are held at Jerez de la Frontera and Barcelona. Lotus F1 loses four days of running after discovering a critical chassis fault. HRT and Marussia are unable to complete meaningful mileage; both cars failed crash tests before testing and were limited to shakedowns only.