"It's a bit surprising" - Alpine expecting FIA to investigate similarities between Haas and Ferrari in 2022 F1 season

Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer has confirmed that he expects the FIA to fairly investigate the similarities between the cars fielded by Ferrari and Haas this year.

This comes after Haas' strong start to the current campaign after languishing at the bottom of the pack in recent times, which has taken many teams by surprise. The American outfit have scored points in two out of three races so far and look set to be part of the midfield battle in 2022.

In an interview carried by gpfans.com, the Alpine boss admitted that he found Haas' sudden uptick in performance to be 'a bit surprising'. Szafnauer said:

"It's a small team that's done well over the winter, from last to sometimes third-fastest team and it's a bit surprising. I thought that the pecking order would stay almost the same because generally, in a big regulation change, over the years that I've been in Formula 1, the bigger the regulation change, the more it favors those with know-how and the infrastructure and the tools to actually exploit the new rules. So, it's a bit surprising that the Haas are where they are for a small team but I trust the FIA will investigate and come to the right conclusion between how similar the two cars are."

Ferrari have been the power unit supplier for the American team since they joined F1 in 2016. However, prior to the 2022 season in which revamped regulations overhauled car designs in the sport, Haas had shifted their operations to a design office in Maranello.

The FIA must now investigate to see if there is any collaboration between Haas and Ferrari that is circumventing the rules put in place for the 2022 season.

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"How did you come up with them?" - Alpine boss had voiced suspicions of similarities in Bahrain

Alpine chief Otmar Szafnauer had also hinted at this case of uncanny similarities at the start of the season, refraining from mentioning any names in specific back then.

During an earlier interview with the The Race prior to the 2022 F1 Bahrain GP, he had said:

“I’ve seen solutions on a couple of cars, that you think how the hell did two independent teams come up with that? And I don’t know how to solve it. But I think an even playing field within Formula 1 is something that’s important. But we have to work with the FIA to solve that. Because like I said, you guys too can have a look out there and think, how do these two teams independently come up with that solution?

Szafnauer, who moved to Alpine after a lengthy tenure at Aston Martin, went on to add:

"Especially when there’s rule changes. Nobody knows what the solutions are going to be until you see them. So how did you come up with them? In time, where people look and think ‘ooh, let me try that in the tunnel’, I get it. But not right out of the box.”

It remains to be seen if we will have any updates on this matter before all the teams go racing once again for the fourth Grand Prix of the year in Imola.