Title race still wide open: 'You can keep developing the 2021 car'

According to Jan Monchaux, it is entirely possible to continue developing the 2021 car alongside the new 2022 car. Despite the limited time in the wind tunnel and CFD, Alfa Romeo's Head of Technology sees plenty of opportunities to combine the two.

With a huge rule change planned for 2022, it's hard for teams to still be fully focused on 2021. Haas, for example, has chosen to focus on 2022, whereas other teams are looking for a mix. Mercedes and Red Bull Racing have to keep developing, otherwise, the title will go to their competitors.

''The time in the wind tunnel is limited. That's the number of conversions in the CFD and time in the wind tunnel combined. However, with all the tests for your 2022 car you won't reach the complete number of tests you are allowed to run, so there are small gaps where you can do individual tests for the 2021 car'', Monchaux says to Auto, Motor und Sport.

Big changes also take a lot of time, however, and so we won't see them in 2021 either. ''Nobody takes the time to make a new design for the front wing and corresponding housing for one season. That takes two months. That's why we will never find the perfect answer to the current regulations'', concludes Alfa Romeo's technical chief.