Top man Liberty Media: 'Pecking order in F1 still going to change in 2022'

Rob Smedley and Ross Brawn have been jointly responsible for the 2022 regulations and after the first two Grands Prix it can rightly be said that the two important players for Liberty Media have done an excellent job. Smedley himself is also happy with what he has been presented with the races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

Red Bull Racing has managed to maintain its position as the top team, while Ferrari seems to be the absolute winner of the new rules. Mercedes, on the other hand, have struggled, as in fact have all the racing teams running with an engine of the German brand. Alfa Romeo and Haas F1 were in the rearguard last year, but are competitive subtoppers early this year.

However, the current pecking order will change more than ever over the course of the season, Smedley expects speaking to Reuters. According to him, development will be very important.

"I would expect that to change now more than any other year as people find big chunks of performance in lots of different areas. The development phase of the car is at such an immature stage, the cars will change significantly from the first race to the final race... There's going to be a very, very strong development curve on those cars."

For the teams, that's where the big challenge lies in 2022. On top of that, all the teams have to keep working within the budget cap. From Red Bull to Aston Martin; everyone will want to upgrade an awful lot of parts, but because there is only a limited budget to spend, choices will have to be made.

Liberty Media succeeded in mission

The 48-year old Brit who previously worked in Formula 1 for the teams Williams, Ferrari and Jordan thinks it is a good development that certain teams can now suddenly fight for World Championship points again, while a formation like Mercedes has to tap from a different barrel than they are used to. According to him that was exactly the objective Liberty Media had in mind. Smedley argued that what we see now makes the pinnacle of motorsport so beautiful.