How departing F1 boss Brawn views F1’s new rules - and the future

“I’m sailing off into the sunset and I’m really pleased – delighted – with where Formula 1 is today.”

Ross Brawn is sitting in his office in Formula 1’s designated hospitality building in the Abu Dhabi paddock. His desk is almost imposingly big, but empty. The room itself is without any fuss. Out of sight, Brawn has placed a present he will later hand to Sebastian Vettel – an unspecified gift he knows the four-time world champion will enjoy, rather than a mere gesture of token farewell.  

The moment represents departures for both – Vettel from Aston Martin and into F1 retirement; Brawn likewise, but leaving the Formula One Management organisation itself. 

The room, the desk, the man. A career of important decisions delivered – their resulting impact what matters, not theatrics along the way. Not that Brawn, the person who embodies F1’s 2022 car design rule changes more than anyone else, in his own understated way can’t leave an impression with just his words. 

“Sort of, eight or nine out of 10,” is his no-nonsense verdict on the success of the new ground-effects cars – machines Brawn and his FOM team conceived to improve F1 racing.  

Given Brawn’s role in crafting the rules and his position as technical and sporting boss at FOM since 2017, Autosport, who he’s chatting to exclusively at his farewell race, had been expecting reasoned positivity. It’s the remaining areas already identified for improvement in which we’re really interested.

Because this is still F1 – the ever-lasting pursuit of motorsporting perfection at the pinnacle of the single-seater ladder. It’s where things are never quite finished regarding rules and cars, because the true game is getting around the restrictions of the formula set down to suit one competitor before all others. Everything else is entertainment around the art. And the debates that stem from that core within all combine to make the championship a dominant business. 

Brawn is stepping back from his role as F1's Managing Director of Motorsports

Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images

“A couple of things we moved on, probably, retrospectively, we wouldn’t have done,” Brawn says of the rule-crafting process, which was first announced to much fanfare and eventually ended when F1’s latest ground-effects cars hit the track for the first time in early 2022, delayed a year by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There was a period when the teams were claiming the rules were too restrictive and the cars would all look the same, and as a consequence of that pressure we loosened up a little bit and we gave more freedom on various areas. But the consequence of that was that we got exploited! But that’s Formula 1, you know that is going to happen.” 

Brawn on how F1’s new rules impacted… team success

With the 2022 championship now in the books, it’s clear which teams understood the rules best and which did not – a pecking order obvious ever since Red Bull marched clear of Ferrari mid-season.

Max Verstappen’s squad heads the board, obviously, followed by two of Brawn’s two former teams – Ferrari and Mercedes.  F1’s Class A/B divide remains, even though the total pace spread has come down from a 3.102% difference in 2021 to 2.379% (and actually that incorporates the undeveloped 2021 Haas package, with the 2022 first-to-ninth gap really up by 0.039%). This has more to do with the hangover influence of the teams’ experience and wealth accrued in previous F1 eras, as well as the impact of the championship’s other big regulatory changes – such as the cost cap – only starting to be felt. 

"With the way things were, the big teams kept pulling away from the small teams. So, at least we’ve stabilised that" Ross Brawn

Judging the success of the new designs has moved from slightly vague driver feedback about a reduced dirty-air effect and lessened slipstream in Barcelona testing, to Pirelli presenting data that it had clocked 785 overtakes in 2022 – an increase of 186 from 2021. But, of course, true success can’t be measured in such simple terms, and in any case overtaking statistics are still down on those registered during the early years in which F1 cars were fitted with deliberately fragile rubber (the record is 870 in 2012). 

When it comes to expanding the impact of the new rules to cover ‘competitive grids’, which was one of five key areas set out for improvement, Brawn says that F1 needs “another season” before a full judgement can be handed down. Again, no surprise there.

“With the way things were, the big teams kept pulling away from the small teams,” he adds. “So, at least we’ve stabilised that. And I think the small teams, or at least let’s say smaller teams, if they’re smart with how they use their components, how they carry pieces over, they can be more efficient. And perhaps get more done than a bigger team that’s a bit cumbersome and has still got the mindset of all the money you used to spend. That’s my hope! I’m optimistic.  

Norris's third place at Imola for McLaren was the only podium scored by a non-Red Bull, Ferrari or Mercedes driver in 2022

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

“It will take some time. It would be unrealistic to expect a switch to be thrown. But I think it’s going in the right direction.” 

Although the problem has become far less prevalent and has rather disappeared from the media spotlight of late, there can be no doubt that one of the missing marks from Brawn’s assessment of the new rules’ success comes down to porpoising.  

It was, he says, a “bigger issue than we anticipated”. But, again, the elements of self-immolation contained within the fabric of F1’s collective being meant the issue remained even after the teams were presented with the chance to make design changes aimed at addressing porpoising before their cars were finished. As Brawn acknowledges, “a ground-effects car by definition can porpoise because of the very concept”, but higher floors and diffuser changes are coming for 2023.

A principal aim is to stiffen floors overall to make rideheights less critical, and the tweaks are aimed at moving on from the technical buzzword of 2022. Only at tracks such as Baku, where high speeds combine with road-course bumps to send energy through already solid suspensions, does F1 anticipate the issue really remaining. 

“The changes they’re doing for 2023, we did propose for 2022 because we became aware of this sensitivity partway through the development of the car,” Brawn explains. “But the teams at that stage were too far down the line and didn’t want the change.” 

Now, of course, the teams have largely solved their porpoising problems and of course these were issues not evenly shared across the grid. Brawn even highlights Red Bull technical supremo Adrian Newey for praise in not getting “sucked in, excuse the pun, to seeing how much performance there was if you ran the car close to the ground and as hard as possible”. Although he doesn’t name the teams that did, it doesn’t take much effort to infer to which Brawn is referring…

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“Their car had hardly any issues,” Brawn does say of Red Bull, “because we all know that with a ground-effects car you can’t run it rock solid, close to the ground. It’s just too critical.” 

Red Bull was not as seriously affected by porpoising in 2022 as other F1 teams

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

Brawn on how F1’s new rules impacted… car behaviour 

Another key objective of F1’s rules reset was establishing “raceability”. This was to be a new central factor in the rules that shaped car design, essentially translating into cars that could follow each other more closely, and in turn increase passing opportunities. As Brawn puts it, the aim was to “halt the descent into unraceable cars” that F1 was otherwise facing. This was that the ultra-high-downforce era, which, while greatly improving the visual look of the cars compared to the 2009-16 era of smaller and tidier aerodynamic surfaces, had a markedly negative impact on racing.  

Not only did the high downforce levels massively exacerbate the turbulent air effect, but they also made it harder for drivers to control their machines when another came alongside. This was something Brawn and his team of engineers (including FOM chief technical officer Pat Symonds, who is remaining in post beyond 2022 despite being rumoured to be stepping back from active duties this year, and former Toyota, Lotus and Williams aerodynamicist Jason Somerville) only discovered when they started the work that would eventually become the initial models of the current cars. 

"We mustn’t forget that the cars we had were getting worse and worse. And with no stop, no hiatus in the way they were going, they were only going to get worse and worse" Ross Brawn

“Those wheel-to-wheel battles we see where there’s two cars, or sometimes even three cars, going through corners – I think they have much more confidence that they’re not going to have anything strange happen,” Brawn explains. “And the other comment that I got from the drivers – because I was quite keen when we introduced these cars – was that they’re predictable. The balance doesn’t change dramatically. So, you do lose downforce, but you know what the car is doing. You don’t get the sort of understeer, oversteer – you don’t get the unpredictability that you had last year. 

“And I think we mustn’t forget that the cars we had were getting worse and worse. And with no stop, no hiatus in the way they were going, they were only going to get worse and worse.” 

One element that remains from the previous era is the Drag Reduction System, which became a focal point for debate during the early races of the campaign just gone, when Verstappen and Charles Leclerc regularly exchanged the leading places in Bahrain and Jeddah. 

DRS’s place in F1 is intrinsically linked to the dirty-air effect, of which Brawn says “we’ve massively lessened the impact, but you can’t eliminate it” with the new car generation. The aim, he says, is to have “judicious use” of DRS and not rather “ritualistic” and “not very impressive” simple passes on straights.

But if the current cars both need DRS to be a “useful tool” for overtaking and can’t have the dirty-air effect reduced much more, what comes next? This is the key question Autosport wants to put to Brawn. Because there is a much-discussed moment arriving in just three more seasons’ time – F1 rolling on to its next evolution already – in 2026.  

DRS facilitated thrilling back-and-forth battles between Verstappen and Leclerc in the opening races of Bahrain and Jeddah

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

Brawn on how F1’s new rules impacted… thinking for its next regeneration  

“DRS will still be a tool we’ll have to use,” says Brawn. “Maybe with active aerodynamics that will change.” 

Here’s the key thing. With Brawn now heading to retirement, where does he see F1’s future based on the impact of the rules he and his team laid down? “There are various mad schemes” is the start of the response, but there’s one overarching answer: active aerodynamics.  

It’s worth noting here that Somerville and a small engineering team have transferred from FOM to work for the FIA when it comes to forming the 2026 chassis rules, which will be implemented alongside the now-finalised engine regulation changes coming for that season.

The personnel change reflects not only the teams’ desire to reduce potential conflict-of-interest risks of F1’s promoter forming car-design rules, but also because the 2026 changes will use real-world data from the current machines, and so from a transparency point of view it was important that this is instead held by the regulator. Work on the next generation is only at a very early stage, the impact of the 2023 rule tweaks also needing to be assessed. 

But Brawn says that F1’s latest car-design rule-shapers have “seen the light” on raceability being a driving factor on how those rules will come together. That factor, claims the 68-year-old, has been “endorsed and should now be very high if not at the top of the list of any future rule changes” based on what F1 experienced in 2022. 

And so, to active aero likely coming for 2026. In essence, to solve the reduced-slipstream effect on the current cars, active aero would have chassis parts beefed up when traversing corners to increase downforce, grip and speed in those sequences, then hunker down to dramatically cut drag on the straights. Allied to this is a theorised idea of a reverse DRS – that a leading car would have its downforce cut or drag increased – by a moveable aero part to further increase the chances of a passing move. 

“One of the big things about the 2026 car is whether we have active aerodynamics,” says Brawn. “I think that’s an efficiency step which is very appealing. It’s still got to be sorted to see how that can be done and if it can be done safely and predictably. But, active aerodynamics, we semi have them at the moment with DRS.  

“But can you do something much more significant? If you have active aerodynamics, then of course you could affect the car in front. You could have a proximity [that] once you get within a certain degree the car in front loses a little bit of downforce and you gain a little bit of downforce.

Active aerodynamics could be introduced to cars from 2026 to improve the racing spectacle further

Photo by: James Sutton / Motorsport Images

“There are tricks you can play with that. I’m not saying we would do that, but it becomes an opportunity. So, the 2026 car is lessons learned from what we have now and I think we’ll incorporate some form of active aerodynamics.” 

An additional benefit of active aero would theoretically be improving fuel efficiency, with less drag carried down straights, but safety and costs will be factors the FIA and F1 must also balance with the teams. And, as ever, there are philosophical considerations too.

When asked about the mix of pulsating and dull races across the 2022 season, Brawn, charmingly, replies: “I’m a wine enthusiast and a very good friend of mine reminded me you should occasionally have some supermarket plonk to remind you how good your good stuff is! Not that there’s anything wrong with supermarket plonk, but just to get your references.” 

"I’m just so pleased to see the passion that’s grown for the sport after, quite honestly, it was in the doldrums for a few years. I think we need to preserve this and protect this passion that’s grown" Ross Brawn

The same thinking follows down the line to introducing active aero. If the aim is to ever-improve racing, then the argument that F1 is increasingly just entertainment grows louder. If active aero is aimed at eliminating DRS passes by having the rear-wing slot opening replaced by added drag for a leading car, then one gimmick is replacing another. It may even be that both will be combined – again adding to the entertainment-versus-sport debate.  But this is F1 – the same debates recurring through the ages. At the same time, change is coming in other areas for 2026, with far loftier and much more important aims. 

One is the introduction of fully sustainable fuels that can also be used in most road cars, which follows the introduction of the 90% typical fuel and 10% renewable ethanol E1 fuel F1 has introduced this year. This is an area, Brawn says, where the initial expertise comes from outside F1, but that the championship aims to be “the catalyst and sort of bring that together”, as, in turn, more sustainable fuels will lessen humanity’s damage to the planet.  

Another is changing tyre technology so that tyre-blanket usage is eliminated. The aim is to cut out the massive “power surge”, says Brawn, required to heat the rubber to the current required temperatures, an outlay that goes squarely against F1’s 2030 net-zero carbon target.

While the plan to reduce tyre temperatures from 70C to 50C for 2023 is set to be dropped now that Pirelli has discovered, as a result of driver kickback from the Austin FP2 tyre test, that heating at 70C for two hours saves more energy than 50C at the current three hours, the ideal aim is not to need heated tyres at all given the obvious energy wastage. 

Tyre warmers could become a thing of the past as F1 plans to improve its environmental credentials

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

That would inevitably require a change in tyre-compound construction and possibly mandated chassis design changes from 2024 if the tyre blankets do get banned then, as is still planned. But a way of maintaining grip through tyre pressures might be retained, Brawn suggests, through “automated tyre valves” come 2026. 

“There is back and forth,” Brawn says of setting out the full set of rule changes eyed for 2026. “I don’t think there are any barriers there, we’re always open to what could be done.” 

But F1 will now do so without the former March, Williams, Haas Lola, Arrows, Jaguar, Benetton, Ferrari, Honda, Brawn and Mercedes engineer/manager – finally going fishing as often as he wants, although still willing to hold a temporary consultant role, should “very good friend” and F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali call in the future. Brawn recognises the importance of maintaining the championship for its fans above all else – for life-long supporters and new arrivals. Even here, with aspects such as DRS and entertainment-versus-sporting purity, F1’s contradictory nature is laid bare again.  

And so, Brawn says farewell to “a unique sport”: “I’m just so pleased to see the passion that’s grown for the sport after, quite honestly, it was in the doldrums for a few years. I think we need to preserve this and protect this passion that’s grown.”

Brawn bows out content that F1 is in a better place than it has been for many years

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Brawn’s farewell message

After nearly 50 years in motorsport, what message does Ross Brawn have for those who have followed his varied and ultimately ultra-successful exploits? Autosport offered him the chance to give a personal goodbye, and here’s what he said…

“Well, it’s a wonderful sport and it’s this amazing combination of technology and talent. Great drivers in rubbish cars and average drivers in brilliant cars, and sometimes brilliant drivers in brilliant cars. And I just think the whole fact it changes so much during the season.

"The openness and transparency and commitment all the teams had to get the show on the road again I think shows that we can be a pretty hostile sport when it comes to the track, but we’re actually all together when it comes to taking the sport forwards" Ross Brawn

“If you look at most sports, if you look at athletics or tennis – someone tends to be at the top of the tree and unless they have an off day it’s very difficult for anyone to beat them. This sport, you might be winning – I know we’ve had periods of domination – then someone comes up and makes a lot of progress with the car and suddenly you’re not winning. We have that dynamic going on all the time. 

“It’s shark-infested waters, Formula 1, but if you had a problem teams rallied around. If you look at what we did in COVID, it’s an example of how [things went from], ‘OK, one day we’re on the track and trying to nail each other, the next day, crikey, we’ve got COVID, how are we going to [get through it]?’ Not only the work the teams did on things like ventilators and so on [through Project Pitlane], but how the teams cooperated to get the sport going again.

“And the openness and transparency and commitment all the teams had to get the show on the road again I think shows that we can be a pretty hostile sport when it comes to the track, but we’re actually all together when it comes to taking the sport forwards, which is great. So, I will be following with great interest!” 

Brawn plans to continue following grand prix racing from afar after stepping back from his role at FOM

Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images