Together with his team of F1 engineers, who transferred to the FIA department a few months ago, Symonds was one of the main architects of the 2022 car concept.
The technical director of Formula 1 assures that after a great start to the new 2022 season, they are already looking for more ways to improve the show.
However, these changes will be so significant that they will be saved until the arrival of a new generation of single-seaters in 2026, when the category will also welcome a new power unit.
Pat Symonds , who originally planned to step down from his role from this summer, will ultimately remain in F1 and thus be able to be at the forefront of long-term plans.
“If we weren’t learning lessons, we’d be dead,” Symonds told Motorsport.com. “I think that when you design a car, you are never 100% happy with it.”
“By the time it’s finished you just think ‘I could have done a better job here or there’. And I think with the 2022 car, that was the case.
“I’m very, very happy with what we’ve done. But there are things that could be better.”
“It won’t be in 2023 or 2025, but I think for 2026 there will be a lot of changes to the concept of the car. So we’re not talking about key tweaks yet, we’re talking about basic principles.”
Symonds acknowledged that data collected from the Bahrain and Saudi Arabia races showed “positive” signs that following another car is now easier than before.
“We have analyzed some data and we will do an internal report after a few more races. I always say that you should not do things with a small sample. The objective was never to overtake, there are many other things that influence it. It was always about following each other more closely. “.
“We started monitoring it a few years ago and now we can see a change. We’ve had very few races but I think the early data is pointing in a positive direction. So I’m very hopeful that this year we’ll have very spectacular and close races.”
“We have learned a lot about this car and we are confident in our tools. A lot of people were very doubtful whether we would make any changes, but we have shown that we can do it and that we understand their problems.”
“During the later stages of trying to test the 2022 rules, we realized there were better ways to do some things. We’ll include them in the next generation of design, which will probably come in 2026.”
“As I said before, the moment you design something, you’re not 100% happy with what you’ve done. You have to be pragmatic, you can’t do a totally new concept every year,” the F1 technical director concluded.
