Wolff sees 'formidable' challenge from 2022 rules

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says that he expects to see an 'earthquake' in Formula 1 as a result of the new rules and regulations coming ito effect in 2022.

The changes had originally been planned to the introduced in 2021, but the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic led to teams and the FIA agreeing on a one year delay.

As a result the forthcoming season will see only minor changes, and teams are expected to run modified versions of last year's cars as they target their development work on next year's radical overhaul.

• Read also: Wolff says Mercedes success with Hamilton not 'one dimensional'

Even so, Wolff said that the introduction of Formula 1's spending cap this year would present a challenge to how the teams approached the 2021 season.

“For us it will be an interesting year," he told Autosport magazine. “We are facing this formidable challenge of slightly tweaked 2021 regulations and a big earthquake of regulatory change for 2022.

"We will need to structure ourselves in a different way than we have done before due to the cost cap."

Any major change in the sport has the potential to upset Mercedes remarkable run of seven consecutive world championships. But Wolff also sees it as a brand new opportunity for his team.

“There are factors working against us that motivate us a lot and factors working for us," he stated.

"We believe we have a good organisation," he added. "Overall we embrace change and we’ve always done so in the past, so the organisation is very much looking forward to 2022."

Wolff himself has committed to remaining at Mercedes for the next three years and is one of three equal shareholders in the team along with Daimler and INEOS.

Driver Valtteri Bottas has also signed a new one-year contract with the team. But negotiations with reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton are still going, with speculation that Daimler is unhappy with the Briton's pay demands.

Wolff insisted that this didn't mean that there were rifts among the shareholders, insisting that his relationship with Daimler CEO Ola Kallenius and the rest of the board was "as good as it can be".

He pointed out that the time it took to hammer out his own deal to stay at Brackley was evidence for how much time such negotiations took.

“Looking into the future is not always as simple as just extending an employment contract," he said. "It’s about talking about the relationship among shareholders in the future, and that is something that takes time.

"It’s the normal way of things," he insisted. "It doesn’t go from one day to the other that you simply find a solution to every question around governance and future shareholding."

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter