Why F1 2022 will not resemble a 'one-make' series

Formula 1

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Why F1 2022 will not resemble a 'one-make' series

More restrictive regulations mean cars will look very similar to each other

Ewan Gale

Monday 26 July 2021 09:30

Alpine executive director Marcin Budkowski has eased fears F1 will look like a one-make championship when new regulations are introduced next season.

The 2022 car was launched at Silverstone last time out with radical new styling as the sport aims to promote closer, more exciting racing.

With the regulations around car design much more restrictive in order to discourage a plethora of wings and vanes from being added to the cars in the quest for added performance, worries have arisen over the sport reflecting a one-make series.

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Asked if this was a concern, Budkowski replied: "By definition, these regulations, even if they are more restrictive, are still open to development, so we’re far from a one-make formula so far.

"Equally, one of the objectives of the FIA and Formula 1, when they conceived these regulations, is to make them more restrictive because they want closer racing, as in less differences, less potential, if you want, for differentiation between the teams.

"They also conceived them for an objective, which is easier following, so more ease of overtaking if you want and the more divergence from the initial geometry, the more the subjective is at risk, so that’s the reason why they’re more restrictive."

Like with any change of regulation in F1, the development cycle allows for larger gains at the beginning of a regulation set before gains become more incremental at the end of the cycle and Budkowski expects no different from the 2022 machinery.

"We’re still finding quite a lot of performance at this stage because it’s early on in the development phase of these cars," he added.

"It will taper down, it will be more and more difficult to find performance but at this stage, there is still quite a lot of performance to be found on these cars."