Ross Brawn: Formula 1® needs focus on 'raceability'
Tuesday, 22 March 2022
Following an era dominated by the Mercedes team.
Formula 1® managing director Ross Brawn is tentatively satisfied by the racing impact of new regulations, following the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday.
Following an era dominated by the Mercedes team, significant regulatory changes have been made for the 2022 season, to allow for closer racing.
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Brawn, who was tasked with implementing the regulation changes by Formula 1®, praised the "raceability" of the current cars in comparison to previous years.
"We're delighted," Brawn told Sky Sports F1 post-race. "It is the first race so we have to be careful but all the signs are that we have moved in the direction that we wanted to move in, and the ability of the cars to race each other has improved.
"In the past we have always focused on car safety and performance. Now we should focus on raceability. That should be in there as well, because there's never been any attention paid to it."
Some of the biggest regulation changes for 2022 relate to aerodynamic output and cleaning up the turbulent wake that quickly overheated following cars in recent past, affecting the potential of wheel-to-wheel racing, despite the optimal increase in performance.
Though lap times during winter testing reflect slower overall performance, Charles Leclerc's win at Sakhir on Sunday didn't come until after a closely fought battle with reigning world champion Max Verstappen.
Brawn believes Formula 1® is on the path to finding balance.
"We could see from previous cars, you could simply see the downforce or the aerodynamic performance of the car that was following degrading hugely when it was behind another car," he said.
"We (Formula 1®) can't see the data because we're the commercial rights holder, but the FIA will now look at all the data of the cars and from that, put that into the research program to see how we can improve it further.
"I think anecdotally, you could see the cars can race a lot better."
These two put on one heck of a show!@Charles_Leclerc ⚔️ @Max33Verstappen #BahrainGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/Zl5Szg0qDv
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 20, 2022
