McLaren boss Zak Brown believes new car regulations in F1 have made for exciting racing despite Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari continuing to dominate the podium positions. While Max Verstappen comfortably led the driver’s championship, Brown believes that the series wasn’t boring – unlike when Michael Schumacher was in his prime.
F1 changed their car rules and regulations for the 2022 season in an attempt to make races more competitive and exciting for fans. As well as a cost cap of £124million, tire sizes were increased from 13-inch tires to 18-inches, resulting in a heavier car while rules around the aerodynamics of cars were also altered.
Despite the changes Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari continued to dominate the championship, taking 66 of the 67 driver’s podium spots available. McLaren’s Lando Norris was the only driver able to break their dominance as he finished third at Imola.
Nevertheless, Brown believes that the series was much more exciting than when Schumacher and Ferrari dominated with five world titles between 2000 and 2004. “I do think the regulations need time to bed and that they are good,” said Brown talking to RacingNews365.com .
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“The racing was great and while the season was absolutely dominated, it didn’t feel like a boring season at all. If I go back to when (Michael) Schumacher dominated, the races were a yawner from the word go, whereas these ( races) were all exciting.
“They looked and felt a lot more exciting than the results look on on paper.” Norris will be joined by Australian rookie Oscar Piastri next season and Brown believes that the improvement of McLaren’s technology infrastructure will help bridge the gap to the top three teams.
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“We’ve got the budget, we had a really good driver line-up, but obviously we had a challenges with Daniel, but Lando rings the neck out of our car,” Brown added. “We don’t have the technology infrastructure yet but our simulator and wind tunnel come (online in 2023).
“We’re planning on challenging and being in the mix of the top three when we have all of our equipment. That’s certainly our ambition. Our race team is operating extremely well and we know some of the deficit we have the pace of our car comes from not being at the top of our game with our technology infrastructure – which is fortunately around the corner.”
