Tombazis adjusts expectations: 'Rather one second slower'

From next season, the new F1-rules will come into force. The cars will be slower and the field will be closer together. At least, those are the expectations of the FIA. FIA chief of single-seater technical matters Nikolas Tombazis expresses his expectations.

In conversation with Auto Motor und Sport the Greek thinks that the 2021 season will be hard to top. Therefore, the new regulations that will come into effect for the 2022 season and are intended to make F1 more exciting may not have the desired result right away. However, Tombazis is assured that the first goal will be achieved by the end of next season.

That first goal is to bring the field closer together. In short; to bring Haas closer to Mercedes and Red Bull. The difference between them is now three seconds. Tombazis: "We hope that by the end of 2022 it will only be one and a half seconds." The idea behind it is that with less freedom on technical matters, the teams will come closer together. With a more standardized package, it becomes more exciting.

Secondly, Tombazis is trimming expectations about the loss of speed in F1 that has been predicted for 2022. Indeed, the Greek doesn't want to make an exact prediction but stresses that the rumour of F1 cars becoming three seconds slower is probably a bit inflated. It is more likely to be a one-second time loss.