Fernando Alonso has pointed out areas of Formula 1's new regulations that he believes still require attention, after the first four races of the sport's new era. F1 introduced revolutionary new technical regulations for 2022, which included a switch from a predominantly over-body method of downforce generation to that of a ground effect philosophy – a fundamental change to how the cars create grip. The aim of the new regulations has been to improve the spectacle of racing, by reducing the air turbulence coming off the cars and allowing those following to stay in attack range for longer. After four rounds, the general consensus has been one of positivity as the drivers have been able to battle each other wheel-to-wheel for longer, but Alonso acknowledged that he might be a dissenting voice with his own opinions.
Where have the new regulations fallen shy?
"I'm maybe a little bit more negative [than] some others," he told media, including RacingNews365.com , during Friday's press conference at Imola. "It's easy to follow cars, for sure. Aerodynamically, we don't lose as much downforce as before, but the tyres are still an issue to follow cars. You're still damaging the tyres a lot." Alonso said the cars are also likely to be quite poor in wet conditions, due to ground effect downforce generated by the car as the speed increases and the floor moves closer to the track. Having missed the wet-weather running in Barcelona testing due to a car issue, Alonso pointed out that the cars aren't likely to be great at slower speeds. "In wet conditions, I didn't drive in Barcelona because we had the car problem in the morning, but I guess it's going to be difficult," he added. "These cars on the slow-speed corners – the slower that you run obviously in wet conditions, that will be a challenge. [There's] also the wet tyres and putting temperature into them."
Alonso points out F1's pecking order changes
But it's in the general pecking order and the resulting gaps that Alonso feels the regulations have made very little impact on. While the goal was to close up the pack and introduce the possibility of plenty of different winners, Red Bull and Ferrari appear to have a clear edge at the start of the 2022 season. As a result, Alonso argued that little has changed aside from one front-running team falling back, and another stepping forward. "The new regs are supposed to bring all the cars closer together, and multiple teams and drivers could win races," he said. "I think the order of qualifying is still [a] team by team [result], not driver by driver. "I think that the sport, in general, should keep looking into that and improve it."
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