McLaren doesn’t expect F1’s budget cap to immediately level the playing field

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown doesn't expect the 2022 budget cap to immediately level the playing field between all teams. He claims it will take a bunch of years until teams have the same amount of resources as Ferrari and Mercedes.

The upcoming budget cap for the 2022 season is the latest topic of discussion within the F1 community. Many believe the new cost cap will allow all teams to spend roughly the same amount on their cars, enabling closer championship battles between the field. Brown, however, disagrees as he thinks it will still take several years for teams to have the same amount of resources as big teams such as Mercedes and Ferrari. He said:

“I think it will, over time [level the playing field], but we in particular still have technology and infrastructure to catch up [on], i.e., wind tunnel and things of that nature. While I think five or six teams are going to run at the budget cap, we’re not all entering the race at the same stage, so to speak, so I think it will take a little bit of time — a couple of years — to get caught up to where we’re entering a season and we have everything Mercedes has, or Ferrari has. We might have what they have on an annualized basis, but we don’t have the same amount of toys [or] toy infrastructure that they have.”

The McLaren exec is still optimistic about the team's performance in 2022. He says the new regulatory changes add an unknown element to the mix, making it harder than ever to predict the outcome. The American says there is a lot of "nervous excitement" ahead of the new season, which is set to begin later in March.

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McLaren hoping their new car will be more balanced in 2022

McLaren are hoping their new car will be a more balanced one in 2022 and are keen to improve their cornering at low speed. The team's technical director James Key felt the car was rapid on circuits that favored top speeds and brutal acceleration, but lost out heavily on tracks that required low to mid-speed cornering.

The car suffered in low-speed situations due to a loss in drag when compared to Mercedes and Red Bull. The F1 veteran claims the team was aware that Monza would be a strong track for them while tracks such as Zandvoort would pose significant challenges. Key said:

“The car isn’t quite as robust as it is in high-speed in the low-speed corners. A lot of the work that went into the ’21 car was to specifically try and address some of these problems. Unfortunately, it isn’t just a silver bullet where we switch it on and suddenly it’s great. It takes a while to get them to work. That’s why we knew Zandvoort would be difficult. Equally how we kind of knew that Monza would be strong.”

McLaren are undergoing a period of change. The upcoming pre-season tests will give fans a realistic idea of the performance their new car will bring in 2022.