Ferrari hopes for fewer crashes in 2022 as F1 has introduced budget caps, which limits the spending of big teams for the title fight.
While including several rules in 2022, the budget caps are also a significant rule that will alter the competition. Ferrari, which usually spends tons of money every season, has been vocal against this specific rule.
Moreover, many teams have also spoken against repairing costs being added to the budget caps. However, the leadership at FIA and F1 are currently not entertaining the opposition of the big fishes, so Ferrari will have to deal with it.
Seeing that even repairing costs will have to be adjusted in the budget caps, Ferrari boss Laurent Mekies hopes for fewer crashes in 2022 to save teams from worrying about money.
“There is less money available for development during the season, because the overall budget has also shrunk,” Mekies explained. “We will see more upgrades than in the 2021 season, but also fewer than in 2018 or 2019.”
“We encouraged our drivers to sound out the limits,” he said of 2021. “Because the competition between the two of them helps us advance. This year [2021], there was relatively little development on the car.”
“We were able to live better with accidents in terms of budget. That will be different in 2022 – we need all the money for vehicle development.”
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Ferrari boss thinks 2022 cars will be tougher to drive
In 2022, the new regulations will reshape cars. He hopes that the car performs as well as shown in the simulations. Moreover, he also thinks that cars in 2022 will be tougher to drive.
“We have no idea where we stand compared to the others,” Mekies explained. “There is no reference [with the 2022 regulations]. In the beginning, the loss of lap time was huge.”
“We made up a lot of it, but nobody knows if that is enough. You put the car on the road in Barcelona [testing] and hope that it does what the simulations and the wind tunnel promise.”
“After six weeks, it [the gap] will be less and, by 2023, the cars will be pretty much the same. The window of what is feasible is simply much smaller than it is today,” Ferrari boss said.
“The cars will certainly be more difficult to drive. It will depend a lot on the driver how they adapt to them. We are well equipped with Charles and Carlos. Both get to their goal in different ways.”
Also read: Former Ferrari boss had rejected Ayrton Senna’s proposal to join Ferrari in 1994
