The balance is there, but behind Max
The last F1 season was dominated by Red Bull, triumphant in 21 of the 22 GPs contested, and by Max Verstappen, author of 19 successes for the Milton Keyens team. Not exactly the alternation at the top that F1 and FIA hoped for when the new technical regulations were introduced. It must be said though behind Verstappen, protagonist of a championship of his own, the comparison was very balanced. In fact, just 110 points elapsed from second to eighth position in the championship.
“The grid is closer, the difference is made by Verstappen and Red Bull”commented Nicholas Tombaziswho within the FIA organization chart holds the role of director of the single-seater department. The stability of the regulations can obviously help the teams to converge in terms of performance, but it can also favor solutions at the limit which – for example – return to make overtaking more difficult.
Dirty air and technical directives
“This year [la questione dell’aria sporca prodotta dalla macchina che precede] it got worse. We knew this was going to happen. There are some holes in the regulation that could not be closed in time, for example the endplate of the front wings and the area around the wheels. These are areas that make it more difficult to follow a car. Trails, the ability to follow a car, have worsened compared to 2022, but are still better than 2021″, explained the 55-year-old Greek, as reported by the Spanish website AS.
In recent years the FIA has intervened several times in the ongoing season with technical directives – famous one on porpoising – for correct some aspects of the regulations that were getting out of hand. However, these maneuvers have often caused annoyance among fans, convinced that such decisions were implemented in favor of this or that team. Tombazis, however, denied that the infamous TDs affected the results: “I don't think there was a link between technical directives and performance. This year, in general, the teams performed well“, he concluded.
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