F1 will “definitely” introduce new tech rules in 2022

Formula 1 managing director of motorsports Ross Brawn says the championship’s new technical regulations will “definitely” be introduced in 2022.

F1 was set for a major overhaul to its technical regulations in 2021 but had to postpone the plan until 2022 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic which has forced the opening 10 races of the 2020 season to be called off.

In March, the teams unanimously agreed to delay the regulations until 2022 and carry over their current cars into next season in a bid to cut costs with F1’s revenue impacted by the current racing hiatus.

But Red Bull Racing chief Christian Horner said recently there was “reasonable agreement” among the 10 teams to defer the rule changes by an additional year until 2023.

Speaking to the F1 Show, Brawn shut down suggestions of another postponement and insisted the plan for introduction in 2022 remains on course despite the uncertainty caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

“They will definitely be 2022,” Brawn said when asked by Sky’s Karun Chandhok if the rules could be further delayed.

“Some teams are pushing to delay them for a further year but I think there’s a justifiable need to carry these cars over into next because we’re in the middle of a terrible crisis.

“The initiatives that we’re bringing in with these new regulations are to make the sport more economically viable in terms of the complexity and where the money is spent.

“With the cars we have now, they are so complex that the more you spend the quicker you go. We need to level off that slope and create a situation where money is not the only criteria for how competitive you will be.

“Therefore we need these new cars to even that slope out,” he added.

“We still want the great teams to win - we have to maintain the integrity of F1, it’s a sport and it still has to have the best people winning. But I think we can have a competitive form of racing in the future with these new regulations, with these new cars.

“They’ve been deferred a year but they are definitely coming in in ’22.”

Aerodynamic development on the new cars has been banned for the rest of this year in a further move to reduce costs for the teams.

On Monday, Brawn confirmed that the teams have agreed to slash the budget cap down from the original figure of $175million to $145million for the 2021 season.