2022 F1 Regulations Will Not Be Pushed Back to 2023
Photo: Michael Elleray via CC
Formula 1 has made clear its commitment to rolling out the new technical regulations in 2022 despite rumors that the coronavirus pandemic could cause them to be pushed back to 2023.
The 2022 F1 regulations, which had already been postponed from 2021 because of the economic impact of the pandemic, will introduce significant changes to F1 car designs. When the shutdown began in 2020, there was concern that some teams could collapse and the decision had been made to delay the new rules, enabling teams to carry over their cars to the next season.
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According to F1 managing director Ross Brawn, some teams wanted to delay the rules yet another year, and while he considers their worries justified, he thinks the teams will benefit even more from the rule changes than from delaying.
“The initiatives we’re bringing with these new regulations are to make the sport more economically viable in terms of the complexity, where the money is spent,” he explained. “With the cars we have now, they’re so complex that with the more you spend the quicker you’ll go and we need to level off that slope and create a situation where money is not the only priority in how competitive you’ll be. Therefore, we need these new cars to even that slope.”
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By successfully assembling a full calendar in 2020, F1 certainly made a strong case for its constructors. Even amidst a global pandemic, F1 teams could still race and thus attract viewers and sponsors — and win prize money. Additionally, some of the regulations intended for 2021 were not postponed to 2022, such as the new spending cap of $175 million.
The sport also has to think about its audience, which did not receive the news of the postponed 2022 F1 regulations nearly as well as the teams. Because car performance is the biggest factor in the sport’s results, and the cars are not changing significantly between 2020 and 2021, there’s little reason to believe Lewis Hamilton won’t win another championship in the upcoming season. Had F1 decided to carry over the current cars for yet another year, 2022 viewership could well have been seriously jeopardized.
Kurt Verlin was born in France and lives in the United States. Throughout his life he was always told French was the language of romance, but it was English he fell in love with. He likes cats, music, cars, 30 Rock, Formula 1, and pretending to be a race car driver in simulators; but most of all, he just likes to write about it all. See more articles by Kurt.