Even though Red Bull are hopeful that their 2021 title push didn’t compromise development on the 2022 car, they’re also wary about rival teams that focused a lot more on 2022 development over the course of this season – Ferrari in particular.
Both Red Bull as well as Mercedes had to keep working on the 2021 car until the very last race, seen as how a championship was on the line. Ferrari on the other hand shifted their resources much earlier in order to work on their 2022 challenger. This means they could have an early advantage next year, as could teams such as McLaren or Alpine.
“When Ferrari turn up with the fastest car and smash us out of the park at the first race then you’ll have to say that it probably did [compromise us],” said Red Bull team boss Christian Horner, as quoted by Autosport.
“But I think that we’ve all known that big regulation changes are coming for 2022 and we’ve applied our resource accordingly. But we will only see when we come back in a couple of months’ time, with completely new cars. They look different, they’re going to feel different, they’re going to drive differently – and who’s got it right, who’s got it wrong? It all starts again,” added the Red Bull exec.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff feels the same way about teams who haven’t put in as much development work on their 2021 cars, so that they could focus all or nearly all of their resources on next year's projects.
“So, it’s pretty much possible that teams who hadn’t competed for the world championship this year, whether it’s Ferrari, McLaren or Aston Martin or Alpine, are capable of coming up with the intelligent concepts based on much more runs than everybody else and just doing it very right," said Wolff.
“I think we need to expect much closer fighting for championships and races than we had before, and that’s exciting.”
“When Ferrari turn up with the fastest car and smash us out of the park at the first race then you’ll have to say that it probably did [compromise us],” said Red Bull team boss Christian Horner, as quoted by Autosport.
“But I think that we’ve all known that big regulation changes are coming for 2022 and we’ve applied our resource accordingly. But we will only see when we come back in a couple of months’ time, with completely new cars. They look different, they’re going to feel different, they’re going to drive differently – and who’s got it right, who’s got it wrong? It all starts again,” added the Red Bull exec.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff feels the same way about teams who haven’t put in as much development work on their 2021 cars, so that they could focus all or nearly all of their resources on next year's projects.
“So, it’s pretty much possible that teams who hadn’t competed for the world championship this year, whether it’s Ferrari, McLaren or Aston Martin or Alpine, are capable of coming up with the intelligent concepts based on much more runs than everybody else and just doing it very right," said Wolff.
“I think we need to expect much closer fighting for championships and races than we had before, and that’s exciting.”