Having now reached the final stages of the season, the teams have practically suspended the development of the current single-seaters to concentrate totally on next year’s cars that will be the children of the new technical regulation.
The teams will try to exploit any gray area to try to find the stroke of genius as happened in 2009 with the double diffuser of the Brawn GP, but the F1 managers have worked hard to make the new regulation difficult to interpret so as to prevent teams from finding an innovative solution.
According to James Key, however, while on the one hand we should not expect front-page innovations, on the other, it cannot be excluded that the teams will adopt small solutions that can make a difference.
“I think there are some folds to exploit. Considering how restrictive the new regulation is, we won’t see double diffusers or such great innovations, but there will be other clever ideas and other ways of approaching the news that we will begin to discover as the cars are presented ”.
One of the objectives pursued by Liberty Media with the new regulation is to be able to level the values in the field so as to allow even the mid-table teams to be able to fight for occasional victories.
McLaren F1 car 2022
Photo by: McLaren
Key believes that some elements of the new rules, such as the possibility for less competitive teams to have more hours in the wind tunnel and CFD, could help achieve this goal.
“When you have a new regulation like the one for 2022 the most terrifying part of the year is the first qualifying session when everyone shows their potential. I believe that until qualifying in Bahrain we will not know the values on the pitch ”.
“I think, however, that there will be several advantages for the teams that do not occupy the top of the Constructors’ classification. The benefits deriving from being able to take advantage of more hours in the wind tunnel and at the CFD will be important for the design of the 2022 car ”.
“Finishing third last year was nice, but it could have an impact on how we develop our car compared to a team that finished in eighth, ninth or tenth place. From this point of view they will have a small advantage ”.
F1 2022 single-seater presentation on the Silverstone grid, technical detail
Photo by: Charles Coates / Motorsport Images
The McLaren technical manager, however, said he was certain that the top teams, thanks to a much better equipped staff than that of the smaller teams, will always have a margin next year.
“The infrastructures, the working methods, the knowledge that a winning team has always give a little advantage”.
“I think that, despite the budget cuts imposed, the bigger teams have managed to complete all the investments and all the research before these restrictions went into effect and this will allow them to have an edge over the other teams.”
“I believe that the balance of forces on the field will remain unchanged, but I hope that the performances are closer. I suspect that at the beginning there will be a bit of confusion because the teams will still have to fully know the cars, but over time this hierarchical order will collapse ”.
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