“I think there are a lot of subtleties”– McLaren sees 2022 regulations filled with several traps

McLaren technical director James Key believes that the 2022 regulations don’t seem as easy as they look on paper and may give challenges.

The 2022 regulations aim to achieve closer racing in Formula 1 via radical aerodynamics regulations by eliminating a large part of the dirty turbulent air.

The new regulations are intended to break the status quo of F1. McLaren technical director James Key speaks that adapting to the new regulations may take much longer.

“You could argue a more restrictive car has less wrong alleys to go down, so the chances of that are maybe less than you’d have with more complex regs right now,” said Key.

“Having said that I think there are a lot of subtleties, too, to be exploited and that’s going to be the journey in ’22. You’re not going to see double diffusers and that kind of huge innovation with these regs. They’re too restrictive for that.”

“But there will be other clever ideas and ways of approaching things we will begin to spot as these cars get released. There are traps there. It may be your platform isn’t as optimum as someone else’s once you look at how someone has lined out their car for example.”

“That’s a job for next year. That’s definitely not doable in season.”

Also read: Openness to talk about mental health is crucial in helping people claims McLaren star Lando Norris

Budget caps are a concern

Next year, budget caps are being introduced to level the field between the teams by controlling the expenditure of top teams on the grid compared to financially weaker teams. While bigger teams have shown their resentments, smaller teams see it as an opportunity.

Key claims that the budget spending on car development would be different in all the teams. Thus, according to him, the shape of the budget counts here.

“As far as the cost cap is concerned, yes, clearly, if you’re working at the cap, then you are going to be watching the numbers very closely,” Key added.

“But I suppose it’s the shape of your budget which really counts there, how much of that budget is a push into car development and so on. It’s probably a bit different from team to team.”

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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