Andrew Shovlin of Mercedes says the new regulations introduced by the FIA and F1 from 2022 are not working in the way they were intended and created. According to the Briton, there is even less excitement than in the previous era and the order in the field is still largely similar to previous seasons.

Mercedes is having a weaker season compared to previous years. In the first half of the season, Mercedes appeared to suffer a lot from porpoising. After the introduction of a new technical directive by the FIA, that problem seems to have faded into the background again, but when it comes to speed, there is still a big gap with Ferrari and especially Red Bull Racing. Both championships will therefore be in the hands of the Milton Keynes-based team.

Speaking to MotorsportWeek Shovlin, Mercedes' trackside engineering director, reveals that the field is not as close together as was intended prior to the new regulations. So, according to the Briton, not much has changed either. "It seems that Red Bull is now the clear front-runner. So the races are perhaps more predictable than they were at the end of last year. But it's a small step in the right direction and it takes an awful lot of change to get to where we want to be."

Similar order of teams

According to Shovlin, overtaking has become slightly easier, but there is still a clear hierarchy. He sees that tracking has become easy and, at circuits where you previously had little to no overtaking, it does create a bit more tension. "You also have the effect that, when you introduce new rules and they are completely new (like the current rules) it throws the competitive order around a bit. Maybe that is what we had hoped for and what I don't think we have seen. We still have a largely similar order of teams from front to back of the field now."