Ferrari sporting director Laurent Mekies confirmed in Spain that the Scuderia has now switched over 90% of its focus to its all-new 2022 car.
Formula 1 will usher in next year a new set of regulations that will hopefully help level the playing field and significantly improve overtaking and boost the show.
With teams designing their future contenders from a clean slate, conception work is already well underway, with the amount of resources devoted to their projects steadily increasing.
Red Bull is currently reluctant to switch its full focus to next year's car given its hopes of fighting for the world title against Mercedes.
But defining a timely crossover point that will allow the team to remain competitive without compromising its 2022 design will prove crucial.
For Ferrari, the full switch to next year is in the process of being completed.
"We are focused on 2022," said Mekies in Barcelona, quoted by The Race. "Part of the field is tight and we may need a few hundredths or a few tenths to switch from sixth to third, but it will not change our strategy.
"We’ve switched the large majority of our resources to it already. It doesn’t mean some details won’t change on the car from now onwards. But the focus is on next year.
"If you want to put a number to it, if you want to call it 90% or 95%, whatever you want to call it, it’s pretty much where we are."
Alpine executive director Marcin Budkowski admitted that diverting resources from one project to the other "is always a dilemma". But managing the shift for 2022 is particularly difficult as small gains on this year's car can lead to big rewards.
"This year is difficult because it’s earlier and therefore it hurts a bit more to stop developing earlier in the season because we’ve done three races out of 23," he said on Friday. "It’s very early days in the season.
"When you put in balance the gains you are making on this year’s car versus what we can on next year’s car, the actual decision is very easy because the return on investment, return on development resource, is very disproportionate towards next year.
"That’s the rational ‘thinking ahead’ approach. But when you are in a race and you see that a few hundredths of a second or a tenth of a second gains you a few grid positions…
"We are all racers. We all want to do the best possible result and we know we could get a bit more performance this year."
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