Why F1's new rules can't yet be ruled a total success

It was arguably the biggest rethink of the technical regulations in Formula 1 history and that meant sky-high expectations. If the return of ground effects created races which featured anything less than a stream of spectacular overtakes, then the new rules would only ever earn a lukewarm reception.

But the new framework – first presented at the 2019 United States Grand Prix – was already taking a pounding long before the opening round of 2022. Those who wandered to the bottom of the main Barcelona straight during pre-season testing were treated to a sight not seen in F1 since the early 1980s. The cars were hopping violently as speeds climbed. The rediscovery of this sensation would make ‘porpoising’ the buzzword at the dawn of the new era. 

This made F1 look short-sighted. Bouncing and ground effects come as a package deal, but CFD simulations hadn’t predicted it to return so severely. In a bid to maximise downforce, teams were running their creations slammed into the ground. When the air kept detaching and reattaching itself, cars began kissing the asphalt, so complex carbon floors were being shredded for fun. Teams, each horrified to discover the issue during private filming days, were equally relived when they arrived in Spain to find the rest of the pitlane was similarly stymied. 

F1’s former managing director of motorsport Ross Brawn, one of the architects of the 2022 rules, rolls the blame downhill towards the competitors. He says: “Some of the teams got 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. But, in the real world, you couldn’t do that.”

That may sound like the top brass had foreseen the issue, even if the teams hadn’t. However, the FIA permitted floor stays to be introduced and then stepped in at the Belgian Grand Prix with a technical directive to monitor wear on the underside of the car. It can reasonably be argued, therefore, that the lawmakers were also caught off-guard: this intervention was a tacit acceptance that the rules weren’t prescriptive enough.

The porpoising effect caught many off-guard in 2022

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

The weight of expectation

Even though drivers were preoccupied with their spines being shaken, it was soon apparent that the switch to underbody aero had generated much of the desired effect. The previous 2017-21 generation machinery – with its less regulated front and rear wings, hideously complex bargeboards and fully exposed wheels and tyres – lost a staggering 45% of downforce when running within a second of the car ahead. The feedback from the early 2022 races was that following closer and for longer had become much easier. 

“It’s definitely a step forward,” was Charles Leclerc’s verdict. “The balance of the car is much more predictable.”

When FIA single-seater technical director Nikolas Tombazis was asked to quantify the improvements, he reckoned the loss of downforce while following was now down to 25%. However, there was an element of robbing Peter to pay Paul.

When the high-octane peaks did arrive, it would be wrong to attribute full credit to the new rules. Consider the best race of the season in Austria: Leclerc passing Verstappen on track three times helped make it an all-time classic. However, a far more complex cocktail of factors was at play

Drivers reported that, having closed in the corners, it was now more of struggle to slipstream on the straights. The reduction in drag meant a smaller hole was being punched in the air, lessening the power of the tow. Long DRS zones to remedy this brought claims that passing with the overtaking aid became too “ritualistic”. 

Yet people were gripped by the opening two rounds as a brace of blockbuster dices between defending champion Max Verstappen and nearest title rival Leclerc unfolded in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. That said, their scraps weren’t quite the ground-effect paragons they were being made out to be. Engine performance skewed the assessment. 

Ferrari had finally recovered from a private FIA settlement after its oil-burn trick was outlawed. Its latest power unit enjoyed supreme acceleration and, nestled in one of the few packages at the 798kg minimum weight limit from the off, was a force to be reckoned with out of slow corners. The rebadged Honda powerplant in the back of the bulky Red Bull, meanwhile, flexed its muscles at higher speeds. These contrasting characteristics defined the two protagonists’ frenetic DRS duels on the Middle Eastern back straights, not primarily the switch to ground effects. 

The thrilling bout between Leclerc and Verstappen that decided the Jeddah race can more easily be attributed to DRS and engines than the new rules

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Not every race was quite so closely fought. Before retiring with a fuel system fault, Verstappen fell too far behind Leclerc in an inescapably dull Australian GP. A maiden Miami trip and a visit to Mexico were similarly forgettable.

When the high-octane peaks did arrive, it would be wrong again to attribute full credit to the new rules. Consider the best race of the season in Austria: Leclerc passing Verstappen on track three times helped make it an all-time classic. However, a far more complex cocktail of factors was at play.

Ingredients included the RB18 being overweight, an early morning rain shower ridding the track of rubber, and the Saturday sprint race teaching Leclerc a valuable lesson in saving his new 18-inch Pirelli rubber until later in a stint. A dash of DRS gave Leclerc further help in taking the spoils. 

Rocking the status quo?

Many other critical plot points were also outside the influence of the rules rejig. Rounds in Spain and Azerbaijan will be remembered for the Ferrari engines self-immolating. This fragility prompted the Scuderia to turn down the turbos after the summer break, so the red cars were thereafter seldom close enough to Verstappen to make the reduction in dirty air count.

Mercedes struggling with its draggy W13 was a separate story. When it did threaten for victory in Austin (after an 11s pitstop for Verstappen), Mexico (where the thin air at high altitude masked its shortfalls) and Brazil (ditto for the absence of long straights), it would again be wrong to say the rules had set the stage for these events. 

There are also areas in which the regulations have arguably detracted from the spectacle – namely, any time the going got tight and twisty. Combine an aerodynamic package which works best at high speeds with cars now heavier than ever and the result is ponderous understeer. At low speeds the cars look sluggish and reluctant to change direction.

It was also hoped that the status quo would be destabilised, which it wasn’t. A repeat of the 2009 technical revamp, which produced the unlikely Brawn GP fairy tale, was always unrealistic. But it was reasonable to expect another team to at least take the fight to Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes.

PLUS: How do the best races of F1 2022 stack up to 2021?

Include the three sprint races and, of the 75 podium places on offer in 2022, only one featured a face from outside the ‘big three’. Lando Norris chalked up third in the Emilia Romagna GP. That was it. No hope of a handful of surprise winners, even though there were two in 2021, thanks to Daniel Ricciardo coming up trumps in Monza after Esteban Ocon defied the odds in Hungary. Here, F1 took a backwards step.

Norris took the only non-Red Bull/Ferrari/Mercedes podium at Imola, as the new rules failed to lead to a shakeup in the competitive order

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

At least the midfield proved more promising. According to Pirelli figures, in 2021 there were 599 on-track passes. That increased by a considerable 31% to 785 in 2022. The tyres being less prone to overheating when running in the wake of the car ahead certainly helped. An immediately smaller gap from worst team (Williams) to best (Red Bull) might also go down as a plus.

Again, though, the picture is muddied by Haas deciding early in 2021 to focus on developing its ground-effect car, which meant its deficit grew as that season played out. Alfa Romeo rising from ninth to sixth in the constructors’ championship last year also wasn’t out of step with what might happen from one season to the next during a period of rules stability. Other major shuffles in the order were in short supply.   

Red Bull’s dominance

It’s also difficult to overlook the sheer level of dominance Red Bull exerted, particularly after the summer break when Ferrari wound down its engine and the lighter RB18 emerged. Adrian Newey’s creation won a staggering 17 of the 22 rounds. Any hope that the cost cap would rein in the big hitters was snuffed out. However, that shouldn’t be a total surprise given the leaders’ class-leading infrastructure and technical departments remained in place.

2022 was pleasingly peppered with on-track excitement. But too much of it was circumstantial and composed of other elements for the second ground-effects chapter to be considered an emphatic success from the word go

Tombazis says: “The effect of the cost cap, it will take some years for it to sink in because there’s still an initial advantage for people. In terms of being the first year of the regulations, I think the gaps were very low. If it was the fifth year like that, it would be more worrying.”

The FIA can also defend its work when it comes to fulfilling the brief to produce design differentiation. From the moment Mercedes bolted on its size-zero sidepods, Ferrari unveiled its bathtub-like recesses and Red Bull emerged with its chiselled RB18, few could argue the cars looked the same. Of course, an updated Aston Martin and Williams did then resemble the Red Bull. Since a convergence around the optimum solution is only natural, more imitators are likely to emerge. 

Aerodynamic Testing Restrictions and the budget cap will surely hasten this but should make the field more competitive and ultimately lead to a kinder verdict on the new rules in the near future. Fears that a mandated 15mm rise to the floor edge will cost 0.5s per lap are likely to be offset by the off-season developments. Spending restrictions slashed the flow of upgrades each team was bringing late on. These can now be fitted over the winter. 

The promising title fight for the ages between Verstappen and Leclerc collapsed all too soon. But 2022 was still pleasingly peppered with on-track excitement. Only, too much of it was circumstantial and composed of other elements for the second ground-effects chapter to be considered an emphatic success from the word go. The progress was more muted. A report card would read: “Good start but must try harder.”

Such was Red Bull's dominance that it almost didn't matter where Verstappen started at times during 2022

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images