The spectacularity of the 2021 Formula One season and the fight for the world championship between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen overshadowed the great curiosity towards the 2022 season, which the teams have been working on for almost two years now. The new cars should guarantee greater spectacle and closer duels between all the teams, thanks to the massive simplification of aerodynamics, which aims at eliminating turbulence harmful to the car that follows, and the introduction of 18-inch tires, which should guarantee a wider window of use than today’s tires. But will it really be like this? Will the number of overtaking and duels increase? Will the gaps between the various teams be less wide? In recent months, the statements of various drivers, Team Principals, Technical Directors and FIA and F1 delegates have often been conflicting.
There are few certainties: it is known that the 2022 cars will be heavier than the current ones, and this could make them less pleasant to see for spectators, given that their reactivity on the track will decrease. Driving pleasure for the drivers will certainly decrease: as Charles Leclerc pointed out in a recent interview, compared to current racing cars, the 2022 cars will be more nervous and difficult to manage both due to the large loss of load and the increase in weight. Contrary to what one might think, this element could be very positive: the current cars have so much grip that you rarely see mistakes by the drivers over the course of a weekend. More complex cars to drive means a greater number of errors and therefore more variables in the race, and a greater importance given to the driver’s skills. So better show.
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As for the number of overtakes and the compactness of the group, making predictions is not easy. On the one hand, the FIA and F1 have set as their primary objective the reduction of the effect of dirty air, which will nevertheless remain. According to the calculations, 2022 cars are expected to lose just 18% at 10 meters away from the car in front, compared to 46% of the current ones. However, the institutions of the sport fear that the teams could destroy these good intentions, so much so that, as reported by Auto Motor und Sport, some gray areas of the regulation have already been clarified. Despite this Pat Symonds, one of the minds behind the new regulation, is not sure that the teams will desist from trying to extract every ounce of performance from the new projects, at the expense of the raceability of the new cars. To confirm this, it seems that the 2022 cars will be only half a second per lap slower than the current ones, much less than the two or three seconds expected until a few months ago.
“The FIA can prohibit a solution …” – said the former Renault engineer, quoted by the German newspaper – “… if it believes that it is not in line with the philosophy of the new regulations. Our greatest fear is that someone will be able to divert the dirty air that is created at the front towards the outside of the car. This creates problems for those who follow. Our plan is to convey the turbulence towards the inside of the front wheels and divert them upwards from a certain point onwards. Everything must follow this philosophy. Let’s imagine that at the beginning of the season the new machines will be on average half a second per lap slower than the current ones, and by the end of 2022 they could achieve the same performance. I use the conditional because we do not yet know what the pace of development will be allowed by the regulations. Lap times do not worry us, we are interested that these cars are better in the duel phase ”.
Symonds’ concerns are also confirmed by Adrian Newey’s recent statements on a possible failure to achieve the F1 goals: “[…] After the grid has become increasingly compact in the last period, I believe there is a high probability that we will see wider gaps again in 2022. Some teams will interpret the new rules better than others. We will have to give this new formula some time before judging it, but I’m not sure it will reach the goals that have been set, despite the fact that this regulatory change is the most studied in detail ever. […] “. Doubts about the actual success of the 2022 revolution therefore still remain. Making predictions now, however, is still premature: only on March 20, the date of the first Grand Prix of the new technical cycle, will we actually find out if the FIA and F1 have hit the targets.
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