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Former Ferrari chief designer and FIA member Nikolas Tombazis feels Red Bull's dominance could end as early as the second half of the season. The new iteration of regulations was supposed to bring the field closer as well as aid closer racing. To improve racing, the new ground effect cars were introduced, and that has certainly had an impact.
The bunched-up nature of the grid, however, has not been achieved. Red Bull has been able to unlock the regulations better than everybody else and, hence, has been able to win the 2022 F1 championship.
Even this season, the team has run all eight races and is the runaway favorite to win the title. Tombazis, however, feels that the field could start converging at the front as early as the second half of this season.
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He told Corriere della Sera:
“Putting Red Bull aside, everyone else is close and I think it’s only a matter of time before performance convergence is achieved. Maybe it will be achieved in the next few months, maybe it will be early next year.”
He also further explained that with everyone moving towards the Red Bull concept, the grid could converge and we could see a season similar to the 2021 F1 season.
He said:
“Almost everyone is going towards the Red Bull technical concept – even Mercedes and Ferrari. We hope to see very close World Championships again, maybe like it was in 2021."
He added:
"But we cannot create them artificially. We cannot fight against the ability of some to do a better job than others. It must be admitted that there are those who have done better with these rules.”
Lewis Hamilton urges Mercedes to follow Red Bull's development plan
Lewis Hamilton, aware of the Austrian team's plan of already starting work on the 2024 F1 challenger urged Mercedes as well to do the same.
Talking to the media in the post-race press conference in Canada, Lewis said:
"We were also running fourth in Monaco, so we're definitely getting closer. And it's going to be a battle of development over the rest of the season. I reckon Max's team are already working on next year's car, so we need to take our eye a little bit off the ball and focus on next year also but happy to be up there."
The next race will be in Austria and will be the team's home race. The team as well as driver Max Verstappen have a strong record on the track and will be hoping for a ninth win this season.
