Hill notices unrest within F1 paddock: 'Nobody knows who's the fastest'
F1 News
- GPblog.com
The run-up to the 2022 season was different for each team. Haas started developing the car under the new regulations as early as 2021, Red Bull Racing just started developing very late. Mercedes also started developing the car late, both because they were wrapped up in a tough title fight. Former F1 world champion Damon Hill expects that the title battle will have consequences for the upcoming season.
In the F1 Nation podcast, Hill notes that teams like Williams and Ferrari had stopped developing their 2021 car much earlier." Actually, they gave up then. Last year was actually a lost year, which allowed them to put more into the 2022 car. That's why they are in the spotlight so much. After all, if Mercedes really thinks Ferrari is so far ahead, it could just be that Mercedes and Red Bull put too much energy into fighting for the title last year."
Hill praises the new Ferrari
Hill explains that Ferrari finished sixth in the constructors in 2020, and therefore had relatively more time in the wind tunnel, than a top team like Mercedes or Red Bull." The side pods and the bodywork are so unique," Hill says. He also sees a point of improvement for the Italians. "I've heard one very experienced car designer, from a while ago, and he said:'Hmm, that looks like it was designed by committee. The front end looks like it was going one way, and the back end looks like it was going somewhere elsewhere."
For all ten teams, the 2022 regulations were a gray area for a long time. In the shakedown in Barcelona, everyone already got a first impression of their own speed and each other's speed, but the real questions remain unanswered." Nobody knows what really works with the new rules, but you can already see a lot of differences between them," Hill concludes.