What can go wrong with the new F1 cars?

Every team has been talking about the opportunity F1’s new rules give them to jump up the grid – but there are also pitfalls for the unwary, such as the recently introduced budget cap and new aero formula. And the challenge will be similar for the drivers in teams that nail the regulation switch as it will be for those that don’t

Alex Kalinauckas Feb 12, 2022, 2:00 PM

Upd: Feb 12, 2022, 3:31 PM

“There’s opportunity and of course there’s jeopardy.” Mercedes chief technical officer James Allison neatly and, as usual, very genially, sums up the problem facing Formula 1 teams every time the championship decides that its regulations need overhauling. And that has happened a fair bit in recent years.

From the downforce-slashing aerodynamics revamp of 2009, to the turbo-hybrid switch five years later and then the move back to bigger, downforce-laden and faster cars for 2017, F1 reinventing its racing product is a regular thing.

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Author Alex Kalinauckas

Alex Kalinauckas is Autosport's Grand Prix Editor, covering every Formula 1 race since the start of 2020. After completing a master's degree in journalism at Goldsmiths College University of London in 2014, he worked for a range of motorsport and technology publications while covering national racing as an Autosport freelancer.

A lifelong motorsport fan - no one in his family can explain quite how or why such a development first occurred - Alex joined the Autosport staff in April 2017 as the magazine’s Assistant Editor covering Formula 2 and GP3, before being made Formula E correspondent and Autosport.com’s Plus Editor in March 2018. He lives in north-east London and is constantly frustrated by the Central Line.