James Allison, Chief Technical Officer at Mercedes, says the team have effectively "reinvented" their car ahead of the 2022 season, with F1 introducing an overhauled set of technical regulations. Spearheaded by a 'ground effect' aerodynamic concept, updated bodywork and bigger, 18-inch tyres, the new regulations will produce markedly different cars from those seen during the 2021 campaign.
The biggest F1 changes Allison has ever seen
Allison, a veteran of F1 who started out with Benetton in the early 1990s, says he has never before witnessed such a technical change in the sport. "We've been buried in them and the reality of making them real for so long that it's easy to forget sometimes what a massive set of regulation changes these 2022 rules represent," said Allison in a video released by Mercedes, winners of the last eight Constructors' titles. "I've been working in the sport for over 30 years and they dwarf anything else I've ever seen. "I suspect if I were to dig out Wikipedia and go through every season of the sport that there's ever been, there would be nothing to match the scale of the change that comes with 2022."
Mercedes have "reinvented" their car
Allison went on to detail just how busy Mercedes - and other teams - have been over the winter period to capture all of the changes. "The rules set is not only enormous - the regulations are about twice the size of what's preceded them - but they're almost entirely different from what came before them, and that has meant that we've had to reinvent the car, tip to toe," he added. "Everywhere you look, it's completely new. Not just new as in new parts, but new as in a completely new philosophy, a completely different aerodynamic package, different brakes, different wheels, crucially different tyres…" With an engine freeze arriving for 2022 and beyond, Allison also stressed the importance of nailing this area of development. "Even the engine - one of the things that is less touched by the regulations than many - has to be prepared so that it can be frozen for three years," he said. "All of the goodness that you can possibly pack into it has to be packed into it now, or forever hold your peace!"
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