Formula 1 team bosses fascinated by variance in car designs

It was a relief when the new F1 cars for 2022 started to break cover each with a distinct design, because with the new technical regulations aimed towards promoting better and closer racing, Ross Brawn, F1's Managing Director of Motorsport, and his team went aggressive in specifying what is allowed and what isn't, which risked having cars that would look the same if painted white.

However the various solutions came as a welcome surprise and cause of "fascination" to some of the team bosses who gave their opinion on the matter to F1's official website, starting with Red Bull's Christian Horner, who said: "It’s always interesting to see the cars for the first time, particularly with such a big regulation change.

"And in what are pretty prescriptive regulations, to have such variance, is fascinating, to see how the different teams are interpreting these rules.

"And of course, there will be convergence over a period of time," the Briton predicted. "But you’ve certainly got some very variant themes between the teams and it’s going to be fascinating to see how that development plays out, because I’m sure as the cars progress through the season they’ll probably look very different by the time we get to Abu Dhabi."

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff added: "Our development route has been chosen much earlier, probably beginning or middle of last year. Everybody was continuing to develop their own car and switching the focus.

"Obviously from a fan's perspective, which I count myself in as well, looking at the other concepts and seeing what everybody comes out with, and the interpretation of the regulations, is fascinating," he reflected.

"This is also what makes Formula 1," the Austrian maintained.

McLaren are one of the teams who seem to have come up with a decent car in the form of the MCL36, but according to their team principal Andreas Seidl, the Woking squad have interest in seeing what other teams have come up with.

The German said: "Of course with such a big regulation change, there is huge interest within the team and the aerodynamic side to see what everyone else has done in terms of interpretation of these new regulations, to see if there’s any inspiration we should take on board moving forward.

"So, exciting times for everyone; for you [the media and fans] as well, which is great, great for Formula 1 and yes, it will be very interesting [to see] how everyone is moving forward until the first race in Bahrain," Seidl concluded.

All ten F1 teams will now be packing up and heading to Bahrain for the three-day official pre-season test starting March 10, and it will be interesting to see the updates each team will be bringing along, and whether the "convergence" in design Horner talked about will start now.