"That will be different in 2022" - Ferrari not willing to accept crashes in F1 2022 season

Ferrari’s racing director Laurent Mekies has revealed that the team is hoping for a lesser number of crashes in the upcoming F1 season. He felt that crashes could have an impact on their development due to budgetary constraints.

In an interview with Auto Motor und Sport, Mekies said:

“This year (2021), there was relatively little development on the car. We encouraged our drivers to sound out the limits.”

“Because the competition between the two of them helps us advance.”

“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.”

“There is less money available for development during the season because the overall budget has also shrunk.”

“We will see more upgrades than in the 2021 season, but also fewer than in 2018 or 2019.”

During the 2021 season, some teams such as Mercedes and Red Bull expressed concerns over the budget cap after some high-profile crashes earlier in the season. The teams argued that the crash damage might eat into their budgets, hampering their ability to develop the 2022 cars, or even preventing them from finishing the season if they run out of spare parts.

Many, including team principals Toto Wolff of Mercedes and Mattia Binotto of Ferrari, have argued for a provision within the budget cap to accommodate crash damages, especially when the team has been an “innocent victim”.

Heading into future seasons, the budget cap is set to shrink further compared to the initial amount on a yearly basis. For the 2022 season, teams are only allowed to spend $140 million compared to $145 million in 2021.

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2022 cars reportedly more difficult to drive, says Ferrari's Laurent Mekies

The season sees F1 ushering in a new era with an all-new car design aimed at improving closer racing. The new regulations include a change in aero philosophy – banning over-body downforce in favor of ground effect, a switch to 18-inch rims from 13 inches – to stay relevant to real-world automotive, and more.

As a result, the new cars are predicted to be slightly slower compared to the outgoing generation of cars, but also more difficult to drive. According to Ferrari’s racing director Laurent Mekies, the new cars are more dependant on driver skills than previous generation cars.

In an interview with Auto Motor und Sport, Mekies 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.”

Furthermore, the effective reset in regulations has given many teams a clean slate to begin again. The new season, therefore, has potential for surprises, as a current mid-field team could easily end up dominating the upcoming season.

According to Mekies, the key to having a good car is to recover the lap time lost when compared to current generation cars. The Italian, however, says that it’s still early days to predict where Ferrari will stand in the pecking order.

“We have no idea where we stand compared to the others.”

“There is no reference. In the beginning, the loss of lap time (compared to 2021 cars) 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 (for winter testing) and hope that it does what the simulations and the wind tunnel promise.”

Interestingly, Mekies believes the new regulations are crafted in such a way that any runaway leaders will have their performance advantage neutralized within a few races.

Even if a team does get the rules completely wrong to start, Mekies is confident that the nature of the regulations will allow teams to quickly rectify mistakes with their design.

“After six weeks, it (the performance 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.”

After one of the most closely fought championship battles in F1 history, many have expressed concerns that the new regulations could once again widen the performance gaps between teams, and therefore hinder racing. Several insiders within F1, such as CEO Stefano Domenicali, and Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto, have however assured that the new regulations won’t be a repeat of the 2014 season. That year saw Mercedes arrive with a huge advantage, going on to dominate the entire field.