The biggest rule revision of Formula 1 to date is here, with the changes to the rules for 2022, which should change the competitiveness of the championship in the coming years.
But will the massive change in technical and financial regulations work as intended?
Here are some thoughts from our authors:
The departure of Brawn and Symonds is worrying
Gary Anderson
As the driving forces behind these dramatic regulatory changes – Ross Brawn and Pat Symonds – will continue sometime this year, my main question is, do these regulations and the directions they are taking have any chance of surviving in the future? long term?
Liberty Media seems to have exceeded its role as a promoter and is getting more involved in the governance side of things.
Together with the new FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem, who undoubtedly wants to do something different, this will mean that the teams will get in motion until the new regime is firmly under the table.
It has always been like that in Formula 1. It goes one way with the rules for a variety of reasons, then another group of people decide to go a different path, and you have this endless cycle of things to change.
It takes a while for these rules to take effect for which they were designed. So it will be a problem if F1 tries too quickly to start in a different direction.
Since a large part of the new rules concern spending control through the introduction of a budget cap, it will be a big problem when this happens. Rule changes always cost money, so then you need some stability to see how things play out.
So the most important thing is that these regulations really have a chance to interfere, and any changes must be made for good reason, and not just about who has the most political power at any given time.
Give this package time
Edd straw
The main focus is inevitably on the technical regulations and their effect on following other cars better – as well as their aesthetics.
However, it will take longer before it becomes clear whether these regulations will develop their full potential.
Technical regulations are one way to improve racing, but the best way is always to create the broader conditions that allow it. This is less about physics and the cars themselves, but more about the teams.
The introduction of the cost cap was a revolutionary move that had an impact last year but will gradually become stronger over time.
The big teams still have past advantages and will have them for some time to come, so this partial leveling of playing field is a long-term project.
Of course, it also depends on how robust the financial regulations are and we haven’t tested them yet – something that will undoubtedly happen at some point if you know Formula One.
There are other measures that will have lasting effects, such as the Aerodynamic Test Regulations (ATR), which output a sliding scale of wind tunnel / CFD work based on the back of the championship score – which was introduced last year. But even here it will take some time before the full effect comes out again.
If these frameworks are properly constructed and proven to be robust, they will transform the game in Formula 1.
We’ll see some of the impact in 2022, but it will be years before we can really tell if these regulations have reached their true potential and have created an F1 that is essentially not a spending war.
Be realistic but optimistic
Scott Mitchell
So much has been said about the new era of Formula 1 that it’s a little difficult to pinpoint exactly what the 2022 regulations should achieve.
For example, the new regs were initially introduced with the claim that the cars would be several seconds slower. But is that a goal or a consequence of the real goals? Given that a lot of people are now suggesting that they won’t be much slower at all, this is a pretty important point to clarify.
If the speed of the cars is related to the main objective of racing ability, I would be concerned. If it is irrelevant, the core ambitions of the new era should be protected.
But I think that the cars will at best be a little slower and follow a little easier in 2022.
I don’t see Formula 1 becoming an overtaking party, but that’s not the point. With that in mind, I think the short term goals can be achieved as long as we all remain realistic.
The bigger ambitions, however, are not just about the 2022 impact, but a wider range of changes, including the cost cap and weighted aerodynamic test constraints.
We’ll probably look a few more years into this new era to properly gauge the impact – but until then I’d be pretty optimistic that F1 will actually be stronger and healthier.
Be ready to take one step back to bring two forward
Glenn Freeman
The dream scenario, when new rules are introduced, is that we can massively change the order and win multiple teams. But as said above, it’s important not to be too quick to judge the impact of the changes in 2022, as there is every chance that we will actually get more dispersion in the field in 2022.
And with that, there is a risk that a team will know the key tricks that are required to master these new rules.
If that happens to be a different team from Mercedes or Red Bull, the novelty factor will carry F1 through any early dominance. But if Max Verstappen or Lewis Hamilton lead this new era unhindered to victory every weekend, F1 will have to weather a storm of negativity.
The idea of these rules is that the field is closing down and big wins are harder to find for the top teams – especially now that their wings have been financially cut off.
Hopefully we’ll get there in the long run, even if it doesn’t look like it in the first few weeks of the season.
Will the new cars be miles better to overtake? Probably not. But as we’ve seen in 2021, that doesn’t matter too much when there’s a real battle going on between multiple teams. A title fight with two teams and two drivers was fun last year. F1 now wants more than that.
