Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff says he fears the 2022 season could turn into an anti-climax, despite all the major changes in the sport in the pipeline.
Next year, the rules of Formula 1 will be overhauled and, as always, the aim is to increase the excitement and spectacle on the track. The last time this happened, however, resulted in an almost unseen dominance of a single team, namely Mercedes.
But despite the fact that they have strung together the championships at Mercedes, they are apparently not comfortable at Mercedes because team boss Toto Wolff warns against a similar scenario, but that does not mean that his team will continue to dominate.
The first two races of the current season have shown that Red Bull has caught up with Mercedes without major regulatory changes.
“We’ve always said it and it just makes sense: if you keep the rules, the field will grow closer,” said Wolff.
“For the front runners, the profit just keeps getting smaller, even with more effort. At some point, the other teams will continue the steep form curve, and then you have convergence. ”
“This year’s upgrades have been limited to aerodynamic adjustments. The introduction of a budget cap means that teams must focus on developing next year’s more radical changes. ”
Wolff therefore predicts a re-release of the situation in 2014, when the switch to hybrid technology and the dominance of Mercedes began.
“I guarantee we will have a situation with a widely distributed field next year,” predicted Wolff. “Maybe Mercedes will not be at the front, but we will be back to the previous situation.”
But before he worries about 2022, he has to deal with the rivals for this season, namely Red Bull.
“We are currently lagging behind Red Bull in all areas of the car. We are doing everything we can to compete against what we think is a better Red Bull package. ”
“If everything goes smoothly and everyone stays clear, we will be two tenths behind Max on the grid and not at the front,” he said of last week’s qualifying. Hamilton then ended on pole, however.
“Everything is always different in sports. Lewis really conjured a super lap out of his hat and that’s why he was in the front. ”
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