F1 not on spec cars – Steiner

Haas team boss Günther Steiner is confident that there is still “plenty of room for development” within the 2022 regulations.

The F1 unveiled a full-size demonstration vehicle of the soon-to-be-introduced aerodynamic regulations ahead of the British Grand Prix.

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Even so, Steiner fired F1 is on its way to becoming a “Spec Car” championship similar to IndyCar or Formula 2.

“I don’t think there is, as much as we think it’s a spec car, it’s not really a spec car,” he said.

“A lot of interpretations of this are like ‘yes it’s a special car’ but it isn’t. There is still a lot of room for development.

“The spaces in which they develop are smaller, but they are still free. It’s not like an IndyCar that you can’t do anything about.

“You still have room to do things and it will be less noticeable, to be honest, when people do different things because the devil is in the details.”

F1 only reveals the “principle” of the regulations

Haas stopped developing its 2020 car in the middle of last year, and despite minor upgrades earlier this year, the team decided to spend all of their budget on the changes in 2022.

“There are still a lot of things you can do to get the diffuser working from this side so they’re different and I wouldn’t compare it to an IndyCar because it’s obviously a spec car,” explained Steiner.

“A Formula 2 car is a spec car, but a Formula 1 car, there is still a lot of work and areas that you can work on in the new regulations.

“What you saw was the principle of a car, what the base will look like, but the cars will be quite developed.

“When a hundred engineers are working on it, a few hundred engineers on each team are working hard, they find places when they have the opportunity to do something different.

“So it will continue to be very competitive.”