How Imola exposed the success and failure of F1's 2022 rules

For all the excitement that a wet/dry Emilia Romagna Grand Prix could have given us, in the end it was the weather that proved to be the catalyst for not much excitement. The slow speed at which the track dried left just a single racing line around much of Imola for most of Sunday afternoon – and that meant there was almost no chance of anyone making a lunge down the inside or trying to be brave around the outside.

Once you had track position, like Pierre Gasly had over Lewis Hamilton, then as long as you didn’t make any major blunders, then there was little chance of being passed.

“Well, I would not say easy, but it wasn't too hard,” said Gasly about the challenge of keeping Hamilton back.

The fairly processional nature of the Imola race prompted some to suggest that it was proof that the 2022 rules aren’t working, as the racing didn’t appear any better than it had been in the past. But that viewpoint ignores the huge impact that it being wet off line had. As Sergio Perez said, whose critical move past Charles Leclerc after the second stops was helped by the dry line getting a bit wider, said: “There was basically one racing line and you had to make sure you were on that. It was the same case with backmarkers. Trying to get through them on the wet side was difficult.”

But while linking the Emilia Romagna spectacle entirely to the 2022 rules is unfair, the weekend has at least given us a much better insight into some of the success and failures of the new regulations. In fact, Imola was always going to be quite a good test for F1’s new rules, with the sprint format on a track where overtaking has been difficult in the past a great place to expose the good and bad points of the current cars. Considering that passing has never been straightforward at Imola, the sprint race produced some decent action: and an overtaking move for the lead.

The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix weekend provided the 2022 F1 rules with its best test yet

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

Sure a lot of these passes were cars moving forward because they were out of position after the mixed-up qualifying session, but the Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc battle was at least a pretty interesting duel for victory.

And whereas at Bahrain and Saudi Arabia we had seen a some overtakes and re-overtakes, the Imola battle was more straightforward: Verstappen with his better tyres was at least able to stay behind Leclerc enough to seize the chance for a pass late on and sweep on for the triumph.

What the Imola sprint and main grand prix showed us is that overtaking and passing in a championship as competitive as F1 is always going to rely on there being performance differences between the two cars battling each other. It doesn’t matter how much closer cars can follow in each other’s slipstream, if there is just one tenth of a second performance difference between two cars over a lap, then overtaking is going to be nigh on impossible – no matter how good the rules are.

"I do think that the cars are better to follow. At least you don't have these weird moments any more of like, big oversteer, big understeer" Max Verstappen

In the heat of a race, that is why there has always been a requirement for a performance variable to enter the mix to allow a proper pass. That can come from genuine car differences, a tyre performance offset (either compound differences or degradation) or DRS.

On the tyre front, F1 has moved away from having massive degradation with its rubber to provide this lap time offset, because drivers didn’t like the mindset of feeling that they were racing on eggshells so couldn’t push. But the natural downside of a shift to more durable and long-lasting rubber for drivers to push harder is that the degradation is less, so the performance differences between the cars do not get exaggerated as much.

Pirelli's 2022 F1 tyres suffer less of a dramatic performance drop but still enough for Leclerc to lose out to Verstappen in the sprint

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

That Leclerc’s tyres went off in the sprint showed what can happen when those differences do appear. But it would never have happened in the grand prix itself because Leclerc would have pitted once the graining hurt his performance, and therefore he would have kept his lead thanks to the benefits of the undercut.

On the DRS front, the fact the current cars give off less of a tow on the straights has shifted the reliance more on to the overtaking aid – which appears to have become more powerful this year. And however much people complain about DRS passes being ‘fake’ (and there is an argument the passes zones are too long this year so passes are guaranteed), the flip side is that without the straightline speed boost right now, there is a risk of there being no passing at all.

On the positive side, the F1 2022 rules do appear to have worked in helping cars follow each much closer. Overtaking has gone from impossible because cars cannot follow each other, to at least being within grasp now. The intense turbulence from the previous generation of cars, which meant getting even within two seconds of the car in front was difficult, has now gone.

As Verstappen said after Imola: “I do think that the cars are better to follow. At least you don't have these weird moments any more of like, big oversteer, big understeer. It's hard to follow because of our cornering speed in a Formula 1 car, that will always be like that, but I do feel it's a bit nicer.”

The laws of physics mean there is nothing that can be done, though, to prevent a car running in slightly dirty air having less downforce than one running in completely clean air. It means cars behind will always have slightly less grip: so the tyres will slide a bit more. And that sliding means tyre temperatures, which are especially sensitive in F1 cars, will go up – and that can cost performance.

“When we get close, you do burn your tyres a bit more than you would like and they overheat a bit more,” added Verstappen. “But we consistently work with Pirelli anyway, about what we would like and what we would like to improve. So it's also very hard for them because it's a completely new concept. We haven't really done a lot of testing, so I'm sure now in the coming months or maybe for next year, we can improve things.”

Despite Red Bull's dominant 1-2 at Imola, the performance gaps between F1 teams hasn't been as big as many expected so far

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

What is important to understand is that, when trying to compare the nature of the current racing with how it was last year, 2021 was the culmination of very mature rules whereas right now we are at the start of a new era. There were genuine fears that the start of 2022 would be terribly dull, with one team having got its car absolutely spot on and rolling out easy 1-2s for a crushingly dominant season.

F1 managing director of motorsport Ross Brawn said such a scenario was a price worth paying because, over the long term, the new rules will deliver a more compact field and we will end up in a much better place. The field spread will drop, car design will converge, and things will simply get closer. That F1 2022 has started out with some positive early signs is encouraging, as it shows the foundations are there for better things over the long haul.

"Racing-wise, I must say it has been more enjoyable, closer racing, more battles. It's just been more fun" Pierre Gasly

For now, the necessary evil of DRS will have to remain if we want any passing – but if it’s managed properly and the zones tweaked enough to make a pass possible but not guaranteed – then few will complain in the short term.

As Pierre Gasly said at Imola: “Racing-wise, I must say it has been more enjoyable, closer racing, more battles. It's just been more fun on my side. I think the targets were matched and if in the future we can make another step in that direction, I think that will be amazing for all people involved in the sport.”

Gasly led the positive reviews of the 2022 F1 rules, but will it continue for the rest of the season?

Photo by: Erik Junius