The new technical regulations were created with the intention of allowing the drivers to ride closer to the car in front, downplaying the aerodynamic elements, since most of the load is now generated by the ground.
This causes the cars to emit less dirty air, so it is easier to be in the wake of your rival, and it seems that Formula 1 has fulfilled the objective it set itself, as several names on the grid say after having disputed the first grand prix of 2022.
At the Bahrain event, drivers of the stature of Lewis Hamilton were able to see for themselves if it was true, since the Briton was testing in the previous tests with Pierre Gasly if this was the case, and another world champion, already in the race, Fernando Alonso, confirmed it.
The one from Alpine got into a fight to get into the points with his teammate, Esteban Ocon, as well as with the AlphaTauri or Valtteri Bottas, and suggests that it is easier to follow each other, but not to overtake.
The Spaniard said a significant speed difference would still be needed to pull off the maneuver, something that usually only happens when cars run on very different tires in terms of longevity.
“Continuing was easier. We already saw in the tests that it was with these cars, but overtaking is still not as easy as it seems on television,” warned the Spaniard. “I think all the overtaking we saw was due to one car being two seconds faster on newer tires than another.
“I have found single-seaters that were two seconds faster (than) and I have overtaken some corners. I have also had cars that were two seconds faster than me and have overtaken me in two or three corners,” Alonso revealed.
The two-time champion’s teammate, Ocon, believes that the 2022 F1 rules are “a step in the right direction”, although he also pointed out that the slipstream effect and DRS are less powerful in this new generation of single-seaters.
“The DRS is less powerful than it was, and slipstream too. I think you can overtake, you can follow a lot more closely than before, and the car is less affected when you follow another, so that goes in the right direction, but it continues a bit (the dirty air),” explained the Frenchman.
“It’s reduced slipstream quite a bit, and I think what makes it easy to overtake in the maneuvers we’ve seen is the tire difference,” said Ocon.
For his part, new Mercedes driver George Russell said he didn’t really notice much of a difference because of the cars’ ability to follow each other and the 18-inch Pirelli tyres.
“It didn’t feel any different from the inside to be honest. It’s not worse to follow, Bahrain is always tough on the surface, and the tires don’t seem to be much of an improvement on last year, and we still drifted quite a bit,” said the Briton.
“That’s made it even more difficult with the 40-50kg increase in car weight, so it’s not that much fun to drive,” Russell said.
Another Englishman on the current grid, Lando Norris, who struggled with a McLaren far from the desired performance, said he “expected more” from the new rules: “It’s been tough. It didn’t go as well as I thought so it’s a bit frustrating. I expected a little more.”
“When you get close to someone, you keep sliding the rear end easily, and you lose the lead, the tires overheat and you go back off the cliff,” he said. “I would say it’s a bit better, but you still lose a lot of downforce, maybe not as much as everyone expected.
