McLaren Technical Director James Key believes that there will be a rapid rate of development in 2022, with Formula 1 teams swiftly converging on a certain direction.
Formula 1 is overhauling its technical regulations for 2022 as part of its long-term ambition to create more raceable cars.
The new cars are set to be unveiled next month, ahead of pre-season testing, which begins at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on February 23.
It is set to be the biggest overhaul of the regulations in a generation and Key expects that to lead to a rapid rate of development in the early stages of the season.
“You actually get quite innovative at the times like this,” said Key, speaking at the end of 2021.
“It happened in 2009 with some really upset aerodynamicists running around the office saying ‘oh, it’s not the same anymore’ and we realised there’s a whole load of things you can do but it’s a bit more subtle and complicated. So I think it’s that sort of situation with 2022.
“I suspect we will see some differences, some ideas, on different cars. It will be interesting to see what people have done. I think the development rates will likely be extremely high.
“I think the nature of these regs are probably going to equal out a bit quicker than what we have now simply because there are so many different ways of doing things on the current cars. There’s always a different, a new solution, a new avenue to be seen.”
Key believes the lessons learned in early 2022 means teams could converge on similar philosophies for 2023.
“We’ve got to see how you perform against others and work out the strengths and weaknesses against the competitors,” he said. “We’re all in the same boat as teams in that respect.
“I think that would cause a lot of jumps in development and ideas as we progress in the first half of the season.
“Later in the year, that will come less into parts on the car. In terms of ‘23, I suspect things will become more similar because certain trends probably will be identified by each team by then.
“So we’d have begun to understand what has worked for us, what hasn’t worked as we’d have hoped. “Whether that means cars will look more similar? That’s too early to say but teams will have a better idea of how to approach the ‘23 cars.”
