F1 reveal "rule-busting phase" to combat loopholes with 2022 cars

Ross Brawn has conceded to F1 undertaking "a rule-busting phase" in a bid to stop teams finding loopholes with this year's new regulations.

Brawn famously won the constructors' and drivers' titles in 2009 with his eponymous team following the discovery of the double diffuser that cleverly circumvented rules in place at the time.

Now, as F1's managing director motorsports, he and his department have attempted to sift through the all-new aerodynamic regulations that come into force this season to ensure there is little scope for such ingenuity.

Asked in an interview with The New York Times whether any potential loopholes had been spotted on this occasion, Brawn replied: "If you look at what happened in real-time, especially when I was a technical director, it was the odd occasion when a team would come up with an interpretation.

"Therefore, it was quite extreme in terms of when that happened. It didn't happen every day of the week.

"Trying to anticipate every loophole or every interpretation is very difficult but for sure, our process was to understand the problem, design around eliminating the problem.

"Our group spent some time looking at the sensitivities of the different areas to see where there could be some scope left for the teams to evolve their designs and change their designs.

"Then we did have a rule-busting phase where we did try and break the rules and see what loopholes we could find. We went through that.

"I won't pretend we would've found every loophole, but we definitely went through a regulation testing phase of seeing where we could find some opportunities."

Questioned on whether there was the prospect of another Brawn double diffuser in the pipeline, he said: "I don't think so, no.

"But you never know. Nobody expected it before it happened."

Related

More F1 news

Latest F1 news

McLaren F1 team sign 'fantastic' 11-year-old British wonderkid in record driver deal

• 37 minutes ago

Audi F1 announce major restructure after Jonathan Wheatley exit

• 1 hour ago

Sky Sports F1 star reveals 270kph Nurburgring crash: 'Car flipped three times'

• 2 hours ago

F1 announce return of iconic circuit made famous by Lewis Hamilton

• Today 14:07

Red Bull cannot stop Max Verstappen racing outside F1: 'He calls the shots'

• Today 12:54

Max Verstappen is difficult to deal with but F1 needs him: Lando Norris opens up

• Today 11:57