‘Teams will chase performance as quickly as they can,’ Rob Smedley believes technical regulations introduced in 2022 will be a huge success

Rob Smedley

The cars’ designs for all the 10 teams will be completely revamped for the 2022 F1 season, with new ground-effect aerodynamics being used. It is one of the most significant technological changes in the sport, with the ultimate goal of improving the spectacle and allowing drivers to race closer together.

Several teams have unveiled their 2022 challengers, and each car has a unique design. Only 4 teams, Ferrari, Mercedes, Alpine and AlphaRomeo are yet to unveil their cars.

With the end of the month nearing, Rob Smedley, a British automotive engineer who currently works as Formula One’s director of data systems has belief in the technical changes for the 2022 season but is certain that teams will find a way to potentially halt F1’s intentions by making improvements in their cars. The main aim of the new rules was to change the weight, speed and downforce of the cars, allowing every team an opportunity to overtake and follow the car in front, thus improving racing.

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Rob Smedley opines on the new technical regulations

In an interview, Rob said that, “Certainly the concept, the aerodynamic architecture of what we are trying to create here with a semi ground-effect car and an up-washing wake, that is undoubtedly the direction we needed to take if we wanted to reduce the effect of the wake on the car behind. So, from a theoretical or a scientific point of view, there’s no doubt the concept is fundamentally sound.”

He added, “The fundamental truth is the teams will chase performance as quickly as they can, in whatever direction they can, and it’s possible obviously they will find performance, which is unhelpful to the car behind – and they won’t go out of their way to stop that.”

The regulations were created using either complex computer simulations or wind tunnel models, and the new designs have yet to be tested on the racetrack. As a result, it is unclear whether the new ground-effect aerodynamics will work, but Rob believes the 2022 rules are a starting point that will evolve as the new era unfolds.

“I think that’s the beauty of F1, if you knew all the answers right now and we sat down and we’ve worked it all out, certainly for me and for people like me F1 would become quite boring,” Smedley added.

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