McLaren

Brown predicts seven team title battles in "awesome era" for Formula 1

Formula 1 introduces new regulations in 2022

Ewan Gale

Tuesday 22 September 2020 11:00

McLaren CEO Zak Brown believes up to seven teams could be in contention for the world championship title after Formula 1 introduces new aerodynamic regulations in 2022.

F1 cars will look radically different from 2022 onwards, with more focus on ground effect aerodynamics that produce comparable levels of downforce while producing less dirty air.

In theory, this should lead to closer more exciting racing.

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The addition of a budget cap will also prevent teams with larger budgets from running away with the silverware, and Brown is excited for the rapidly approaching "awesome era" of the sport.

“Renault is coming on strong, Racing Point is quick and just got a four-time world champion," he said.

"I think while we want to catch the three teams that are in front of us now or in this instance two teams, I think we need to pay a lot of attention and recognise that the teams - four, five, six and even seven right now - are all going to be serious contenders when the budget cap comes in and everyone is starting on a clean sheet of paper, which I think then means we are going to have an awesome era of Formula 1.”

McLaren is currently third in the constructors' championship after nine races having scored two podiums - one apiece for Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz.

Ferrari's has faltered in 2020, dropping into the midfield, but Brown gave credit to his team for being able to fight with both the former championship winning outfit and, on occasion, Red Bull.

He added: “I’ve not really looked at it from a ‘Ferrari has gone backwards’. We’re obviously focussed on ourselves going forwards.

“Ultimately our goal is to catch whoever is in first place and that has been Mercedes for quite some time, so we’re certainly encouraged that we are now racing Ferrari, because we weren’t last year and haven’t been for quite some time, and it’s encouraging that we were able to beat Red Bull last weekend, but that’s the first time we’ve done that in some time.

“So I’m more encouraged that we are closing the gap and I think in 2022 with this reset for all of us, I think that gives us a great opportunity."

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