Despite the fact that the new regulation of Formula 1 (scheduled for 2021, but postponed to 2022 due to the coronavirus) has been released this season, the ‘poker game’ between teams has only just begun.
Regulatory change still has a lot of ground to explore and, despite the fact that it seems that Red Bull have the best hand after raising 17 wins in 24 races this year, there may be a team that has an ace up its sleeve.
Ferrari it went from more to less, Mercedes from less to more, Red Bull always on the ascending line… but watch out for Aston Martin. As his boss recently explained, Mike Krack, the team’s progress was stratospheric in the second half of the seasonallowing to recover all the time lost in the first months of 2022.
Why? It’s simple: they began to reap the sown much earlier. As Krack affirms, the hand of the two ‘gurus’ signed from Red Bull and Mercedeshighlighting the figure of the first, Dan Fallows.
Its name is one of those that has the most echo in the paddock for having been for many years the Adrian Newey’s right-hand manthe most famous engineer of the Formula 1 and ideologue of the golden age of Red Bull. A true square and bevel guru in the digital age.
In fact, in statements collected by ‘Marca’, the 63-year-old veteran explained that the new regulations continue to have gray areas to exploit… and that they can give the ‘chime’.
“At first I didn’t like the new rules, they seemed restrictive to me, but now I think that the chassis and the front wing move in a very narrow framework, but also there are areas with a surprising amount of freedom. These include the sidepods and the underbody,” he says.
In fact, Newey goes further and slides that “it is very possible that someone else has a better idea” that the current champion currently has and compares it to the case of Brawn GP in 2009 with the double diffuser, an element that catapulted them towards the crown when nobody trusted them.
“We will continue to develop our concept because we know it better. But I dare not say if our way is the best. It is quite possible that someone else has a better idea just around the corner. Maybe another one has much greater development potential but is still lagging behind today. You just have to remember the double diffuser. That gap in the soil transition was always there. It just wasn’t discovered,” he notes.
“None of us yet know where he will end up developing his own concepts and no one is completely right. At the beginning, with Ferrari, we were two teams at the same level and with different sidepods, and towards the end of the season, Mercedes was getting stronger. You have the feeling that there has to be something better”, settles the ‘guru’.
These words, which reveal that there may be a team that has something in store for 2023, are quite consistent with those of ‘Czech’ Perez at the end of the season on Aston Martin and Fernando Alonso.
“I think Fernando is going to lift the team a lot, all I hear is that it’s going to be a very competitive year for Aston Martin“said the Mexican.
Opinions similar to emanate from the same garage from which, curiously, came the right hand of Adrian Newey, Dan Fallowswhich in turn was one of the reasons Alonso traded Alpine for Aston Martin.
In addition, after debuting in green, Fernando assured that the 2023 car will be totally different. It’s just a cabal tying up a few loose ends, but will the Silverstone team be next year’s big surprise?