Formula 1 managing director Ross Brawn says he saw “no negatives” during the first race under the 2022 regulations, believing the series has made a step from its previous “horrible” cars.
Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix delivered an action-packed race with plenty of battles throughout the field, including Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen’s tussle for the lead that lasted three successive laps before the latter dropped back.
Brawn was a major architect in composing the new rules that were aimed to create better racing, and reflecting on the opening round of F1’s new era, he praised their immediate impact but stressed it was only the first event with the new cars.
“It is a sample based on one, so let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” said Brawn, as quoted by Motorsport.com. “But we have seen no negatives today, which is a great thing.
“I think now once the drivers have debriefed and the FIA start to look at all the data we can see how we have been able to move.
“But the old cars were horrible, so we have been able to make that step. I think we have shown that the raceability of the car has to be a strong consideration going forward.
“It is not just one solution, and we are going to stop. We need to keep this process up and we need to keep working and understanding how we make great racing cars and continue the development in that direction.”
The FIA’s technical department will now have access to the data from teams that will enable them to fully analyse how the new rules helped improve following and overtaking.
While a lot of effort went into developing the 2022 regulations, Brawn is clear F1 will look to continue the process of improving the raceability of the cars for future seasons.
“I think we will digest all the data and all the information and we will get the feedback from the teams and the drivers,” said Brawn.
“I have always said that this is a process and this is not a one-stop solution, so we need to continue the process.
“The team that have designed this car have now moved to the FIA so that team legitimately has access to all the car data. They can look at all the car data and see what needs to be improved and how we move forward.
“If we can keep this process up and if we can add raceability to the priorities of new cars in the future, then I think it is very much the right move.”
Although the major overhaul of the regulations has improved the racing, there remained a spread across the field with the top teams retaining a performance advantage, but Brawn isn’t concerned.
“Obviously new regulations, it looks to me like two or three teams have not got it right.” he explained. “But it wasn’t that bad. As always if we can get two or three teams at the front racing hard, a strong midfield, then I think we should be pleased. And if those cars can race, that’s the key thing.
“You can’t forget the impact the cost cap is going to have, because no-one out there at the minute is going to be able to put another $100 million into their programme to solve their problems.
“So that is going to have a flatter development rate, so nobody is going to pull away. I think a lot of things have come together so we can look forward to having a great year.”
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