F1 bosses confident of voting system's ability to prevent any surprises

F1 managing director Ross Brawn is confident that any rule-breaking innovation that teams come up with in 2022 would be “quickly weeded out” through the sport’s new voting system.

Speaking to GP fans following the first pre-season test in Barcelona, Brawn said:

"There's no guarantee something we haven't anticipated will occur. If it is going to occur, someone will likely spring it on Formula 1. I don't think that will be the case. The regulations are pretty robust, but you can never say never."

He added:

"That's part of the reason why the governance has changed, and it has not changed in order to be able to change the rules at short notice. Teams know you can change the rules at short notice so they're far more likely to want to be comfortable with their ideas before they release them.”

In 2020, along with the new Concorde agreement, F1 adopted a new voting system that would allow the FIA and eight of the ten teams to quickly adopt a rule change or to accept or reject a new idea within a short period of time.

Brawn insists that the new aerodynamic regulations are “robust” and that his team covered all bases while drafting them. If teams were to find any loopholes to exploit, he believes the voting system will act as an additional layer of protection.

Prior to the new voting system’s introduction, any rule changes would have needed unanimous agreement between all teams, F1 and the FIA. This meant that teams who exploited gray areas in the regulations would have had plenty of time before their advantage was taken away.

Famously, Brawn himself took the eponymous BrawnGP to championship glory in 2009 with the controversial double-diffuser, who was outlawed late in the season.

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Efficiency key to success in 2022 F1 season

Williams boss Jost Capito believes the 2022 season will be "all about efficiency," following the introduction of a shrinking cost cap and restrictive wind tunnel time.

Captio feels that teams will have to be creative in how they apply their resources to produce the best possible package throughout the year, while also focussing on next year’s development. Speaking to GP fans following the first pre-season test in Barcelona, Brawn said:

“It’s all about efficiency now. We have the cost cap, and you have to do the maximum out of the cost cap. That means you have to be able to do the best possible developments throughout the year and again for next year’s cars."

He added:

"Having this in mind, that all the money you don’t spend somewhere else you can put into the development, is the most important thing and F1 then becomes an efficiency race.”

Starting in 2021, F1 clamped down on wind tunnel testing, only allowing teams 40 base runs compared to the previous 65 runs. Additionally, each team’s wind tunnel time is defined on a sliding scale by their championship position from the previous season, with the lowest placing team getting the most time, while the reigning champion gets the lowest testing time.

Being the 2020 constructor’s champion, Mercedes were therefore limited to 90% of their total allotment, meaning they only had 36 wind tunnel runs, while Williams, who finished in 10 position was allowed 112.5% of the base run time.