Brawn heard 'moans and groans' from F1 teams over 2022 regs

Formula 1 chief Ross Brawn says there were "moans and groans" from teams when the sport's new 2022 regulations were tabled as they were initially viewed as excessively restricted.

Formula 1's bold vision of the future, based on a radical new design philosophy, with a simpler approach to aerodynamics destined to produce closer racing and tighten the field will be put on its rails this season.

But when first released, the regulation overhaul was received with a fair amount of disappointment by the teams' designers and engineers who viewed the rules as having only a very limited scope for innovation.

"I have to admit I still have to find something to make these rules exciting for myself," commented at the time Red Bull chief technical officer Adrian Newey. "I just don’t think this is a good new regulation."

However, the grumble from the teams eventually subsided as Brawn explains.

"When the teams first saw the regulations, there were moans and groans about the fact we had taken so much scope away from them," the Briton told the New York Times.

"But as they explored them, they realised there was still plenty of potential."

Although Brawn accepted that the previous generation of cars were "incredible devices" and the fastest machines in the sport's history, he also insisted that they were "far too critical" in terms of design when racing close to each other.

When devising Formula 1's new regulations, Brawn's technical department consulted with the teams and invested time and money on improving the cars' raceability, a priority that was a first for F1.

"There had been no resource committed to this area," explained the former Ferrari tech boss and team owner. "The rules had been developed by the teams who had all the knowledge, the expertise and the funding.

"The regulations evolve through proposals and suggestions from the teams. They never made it a priority to make the cars friendly to race each other.

"Suddenly there was resource made available."

• Read also: Brawn and Symonds set to depart F1 roles in 2022

Only time will tell if the new regulations spawn a new era for F1. But if successful in its quest to improve the show on the track, F1 will be keeping the teams' developments in check.

"Our process won’t stop," Brawn said. "Once we see the new cars race, we’ll see the solutions the teams have come up with, and we’ll evaluate them and make sure we’re not losing the momentum on this initiative to make the cars more raceable.

"There may be a little bit of disparity in performance when we start off because everyone’s going to come up with different solutions, but once we’ve settled down, this will be a much better platform for the cars to be designed around."

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