The rule changes that came into play as a part of the new era of Formula 1 that began at the start of this season were designed to bring all ten teams closer together and make the sport more competitive.
Despite this, Lando Norris was the only driver in 2022 that scored a podium while not racing for Mercedes, Red Bull or Ferrari, with the podium in question coming in Imola.
Former F1 technical director Ross Brawn, who has recently announced that he is retiring from the sport to focus on other ventures, has claimed that he still has faith in the new regulations that he was heavily involved in, suggesting that it may take one more year until we start to see the effects.
“I think we need another season,” he claimed.
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“I think, when you have these new regulations, there’s teams that get on top of it.
“In the 2009 season, which was a new set of regulations, two or three teams were on top of the regulations, and the rest struggled – even some of the big teams.
“So, I think we need another season. I’m not sure what we do if it continues that way because I think we’ve put a number of initiatives – the cost cap, the cars and track we’ve tried to help with, the format of racing.”
Brawn’s point about it taking a number of teams longer than the others to adapt to major regulation changes was evidently true in 2022, as certain teams seemed to get to grips with the changes much quicker than the others.
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Ferrari for example came flying out of the blocks with a one-two finish in Bahrain, while Mercedes, who were on a eight-year constructors’ championship winning run, took half a season to battle a porpoising problem before becoming even slightly competitive.
Fernando Alonso has recently expressed his disappointment in the lack of effect seen from the new regulations, however he has admitted that the cost cap could work, as every team is set to reach the cap next year, meaning that the top teams will not be outspending the likes of Haas and Williams.
Brawn has suggested that the integrity of the sport is key to F1 continuing to improve, and with every team seemingly being deterred from breaching the budget cap after Red Bull were handed their punishment earlier this year for their 2021 breach, so far the FIA have done their job.