2022 marks the beginning of a new technical era for Formula 1 due to the radical change in regulations, which has forced all the teams to rethink many of their current processes.
An extra challenge has been the introduction of the budget limit , which was introduced in the Great Circus last year, with a maximum of 145 million dollars (around 127 million euros at current exchange rates), and which is now 140 million (about 123 million euros).
The 2022 car is the first to be designed under those financial cap rules, after the rules freeze was delayed a year by the COVID-19 pandemic that hit the paddock and the entire planet in general.
Before the presentation of the new McLaren MCL36, one of the team’s directors, Andreas Seidl , explained how the impact of this maximum expense that the teams could afford affected the design and construction process of the Woking car.
“The big challenge for this year has obviously been to develop a car under new technical regulations from scratch, at the same time budget caps were introduced for the first time last year,” said the McLaren driver.
“That caused us to have to question many things,” he acknowledged. “A lot of things that we were used to in the past, like making parts or designing them, were important as we were looking for the simplest way with the cheapest materials wherever possible.”
“There was a big rethinking of how many parts you want to produce per spec, which brought a lot of new aspects to the ways we’ve done it in the past,” Seidl said.
McLaren has already changed its philosophy for parts production, opting for a dedicated approach to having more flexibility in upgrades. The team hopes to have a new upgrade package ready for the opening round in Bahrain on March 20, just a week after pre-season testing.
The 2022 rules, with the return of ground effect , aim to improve wheel-to-wheel fighting, as in the past a lot of downforce was lost when one car followed another closely.
Woking technical director James Key explained at the presentation of the MCL36 that it was the “biggest change they had seen to the chassis”, and that it was a “really important modification”.
“We have the new 18-inch tires and the aerodynamic regulations. We often talk about how the sport is regulated technically, but that has changed,” he said.
“There are new safety measures, which are not often commented on, but they have modified the cars considerably, and also all the visible part of the aerodynamics and others. It is a blank sheet of paper with many points,” he concluded.
