The general expectation for the start of the 2022 championship is growing more and more, especially on the eve of the appointments in which the teams will present their cars before the pre-season tests. Speaking of teams, the latter will be eager to see the work carried out by their respective technicians and designers at work, which necessarily had to adapt to the new regulations imposed by the FIA. The rules, considered revolutionary above all from the aerodynamic point of view, will therefore come into force from 2022, and will be able to seriously mix the cards on the table for the fight to victories. An aspect that constitutes a real fear for those who have literally dominated the last era of F1 – in particular, Mercedes – and who risk having to surrender the throne to other competitors for a design error. A scenario that has already been seen on many occasions throughout history, when the introduction of new regulations marked the end of a winning era for teams which, up to that time, had established their golden age.
Specifically, the most obvious facts can be found in five cases more or less sensational, from the most recent to the most remote. Following this chronological order, the first was what he saw as the ‘victim’ Red Bull in 2014, the year in which Formula 1 officially entered the last turbo-hybrid era. The Anglo-Austrian team, fresh from four world championship drivers and constructors won consecutively with Sebastian Vettel, in fact paid the consequences of an ‘own goal’ of the Renault with your own power unit. The French house, in the passage from V8 to 2.4 liters to V6 to 1.6, in fact, created an engine that encountered reliability problems right from the tests. Added to this was a headache linked not only to the lack of power, but also to the constant need for engine cooling. Despite the title of vice-champion of the world, Red Bull paid a delay of 296 points from Mercedes in the standings, which was the first step towards the divorce between the team and Renault.
Another big mistake occurred on the eve of the world championship 2009, this time by the McLaren. Specifically, the engineers of the British team got the i wrong calculations related to the level of downforce of the single-seater, which resulted in heavy gaps from the leadership of the standings, occupied by the new-entry Brawn GP. Only during the current season were the errors corrected with other aerodynamic solutions, which occurred too late to allow McLaren to re-enter the title fight.
The golden era of Ferrari of Michael Schumacher it ended abruptly in 2005. The main reason was due to a late decision by the FIA in terms of regulations related to the use of tires, which did not have to be replaced during the race: with the exception of the punctures, therefore, the entire GP had to take place with only one set. Unlike the Michelins, mounted by most of the competitors, Ferrari paid the consequences of the project Bridgestone, which created a harder compound than that of the French manufacturer, which translates into less grip. To solve this problem, the Maranello team tried a desperate maneuver to perfect the car’s aerodynamics, which however did not lead to the desired results.
Despite having also won the constructors’ title that year, the Williams had great difficulty in adapting to the new technical regulations of the 1994. From that season, in fact, they came prohibited systems such as those of active suspension and tradition control, which affected the British team more than expected. To solve this impediment, Adrian Newey tried to make changes to the front sidepod, which in reality was responsible for a greater difficulty in keeping the car under control by the drivers. Struck by the tragic loss of Ayrton Senna in the San Marino GP, Williams definitively solved this problem only during the current season, shortening the sidepod.
However, the first case in the history of a misinterpreted regulation was signed by the Cooper: In the 1961, the English single-seater showed up with an interesting car from an aerodynamic point of view, but with a Climax engine that was unable to adapt to the transition from 2.5-liter to 1.5-liter engines. The consequence was the total loss of competitiveness towards Ferrari, its main rival of those years, which exploited the unexpected of the British to launch towards the conquest of the title. Cooper, however, was able to correct the problem mid-season, too late for a comeback attempt.
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