"It was a lot of effort" - FIA refutes Sebastian Vettel's claims about 2022 regulations changes

FIA head of single-seaters Nikolas Tombazis refuted the opinion of Sebastian Vettel, who claimed that the 2022 F1 regulations did not produce much racing. The four-time world champion felt there was no significant difference between racing after the new regulations and before.

Speaking to the Motorsport Network, Tombazis said:

“I think [the new rules] did improve the ability of cars to follow each other so I think that, in combination with the tyres, did help. Clearly a good race needs also [cars] to be close to each other fighting, and the second half of this season, it was not so close. There was a clear-cut winner, of course. But I do think that it is going to be quite a lot closer next year again. And, with the [natural] convergence, I think that, in combination with the cars being able to a) race close and b) fight more with the tyres and not overheat them, I think that will lead to some very good races. Overall this year, I think the races were generally quite exciting. So yeah, I don’t think it was for little gain. I think the gain was reasonable. I can confirm it was a lot of effort!”

According to Sebastian Vettel, although the cars could follow each other closely, there wasn’t any significant difference in the on-track action. The German champion believes that the new regulations are yet to deliver to their fullest potential. As quoted by the Motorsport Network, he said:

“We follow closer, but we’ve got less drag, so you need to be closer to also overtake. And on tyres, the big target was to allow racing more, but I don’t think it is a big difference either. So I don’t want to say it has failed. But certainly, a lot of effort had gone in and not all the effort came out, let’s put it this way.”

FIA’s Tombazis, on the other hand, feels the cars will converge at some point and there will be better and closer racing. The head of single-seaters agreed it was a mixed bag in terms of close racing in 2022 but is positive the quality of track action will improve in 2023 and beyond.

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Sebastian Vettel's father believes his son will miss F1

Sebastian Vettel's father Norbert feels that his son will miss racing and F1 upon retiring from the sport. The four-time world champion’s father believes the German driver has spent the majority of his life in the sport and it will be a difficult transition for him. On the 35-year-old’s plans for the future, his father was unsure what the outgoing world champion plans to do after his F1 career.

Speaking to F1 TV in Abu Dhabi, Sebastian Vettel's father Norbert said:

“I think yes. This is my feeling. Seb’s feeling, I do not know. When you’ve been in this hamster wheel for so many years, racing since he was eight, it’s hard to know how he will feel now he is off the wheel. I don’t know what he will do next year. I don’t know what I will do either. I say to Seb: thank you for all this nice time. Have a good time.”

In his first year with Aston Martin in 2021, Sebastian Vettel scored a podium and outperformed his teammate Lance Stroll by a significant margin. In 2022, however, the German struggled with performance and did not enjoy fighting in the midfield and below for the majority of the season, which is one of the reasons for his retirement.

While his senior compatriots like Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso have been performing at a competitive level despite their cars and continuing in the sport, Sebastian Vettel is content with his decision to retire and has not shown any interest in returning at any point.