At the beginning of this season, any improvement in the power units became completely prohibited until the arrival of the new engines for the 2026 season.
It should be noted that individual auxiliary systems can still be freely upgraded until the end of summer, despite the fact that all major components have already entered the freeze phase since March 1. The same applies to exhaust, fuel and oil.
With the freeze, the FIA found a way to significantly reduce costs; but in turn, it was a big risk if one of the current four manufacturers was behind its rivals at the start of the 2022 season, as it would not be able to make up that deficit for the next few years.
In an overview of the results of the first two races, he first highlighted the good form of Ferrari, while the reliability problems of Red Bull / Honda and Alpine / Renault have surprised, as well as the loss of leadership by Mercedes.
Meanwhile, according to FIA technical director Nicholas Tombazis , the data analysis they have been able to carry out so far has allowed them to learn a bit more about the performance of the four different engines currently in Formula 1.
“Now none of the four manufacturers have serious problems [in terms of performance], all the engines have very similar power,” Tombazis told Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport .
“When we discussed the terms of the freeze, we agreed that if any riders had more difficulties than expected, we would all show a good predisposition and come to an agreement to deal with those problems. Even with a temporary resolution of improvements.”
“This is something that benefited everyone in general, since it is not good for the category that someone has to stay four years behind with no options to improve.”
“Of course, freezing the design for so long is not the best thing to do, but we had to do it, because it would be a mistake to allow updates on current engines at the same time that everyone is already working on future engines for 2026.”
“Another reason for prohibiting the upgrades was that the Red Bull team, having lost support from Honda , set frostbite as their main condition to continue in the championship,” Tombazis said in closing.
