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Wolff takes into account more challengers than just Red Bull in 2022
- GPblog.com
We were treated to a hugely exciting season last year with no less than six different race winners, nevertheless, Toto Wolff expresses the expectation that in 2022 we may see even more winners and unusual names on the podium. The new regulations will be the reason for this.
The pecking order on the grid this year may be quite different than in 2021. A surprise from at the top, therefore, hasn't been ruled out by Wolff. The Mercedes team boss said: "It’s pretty much possible that teams who didn’t compete for the world championship this year, whether it’s Ferrari, McLaren, Aston Martin or Alpine, come up with intelligent concepts based on more runs than anybody else and just doing it very right" as quoted by The New York Times.
Other F1 teams smiling third?
Christian Horner previously indicated that it cannot be ruled out that teams like Ferrari and McLaren will be able to take advantage of the hefty battle for the 2021 world title between Red Bull Racing and Mercedes in recent months. Last year there was already a budget cap in force in Formula 1 and so Max Verstappen's Red Bull had to make certain choices.
Giving up man-hours on the development of the 2022 car, which will carry the name RB18, in order to prioritise 2021 was not desirable. Resources were limited and thus Red Bull faced a difficult dilemma. According to the Spanish medium Marca, Red Bull managed to balance it out reasonably in the end, as the RB18 is already said to be faster than the RB16B in the simulator. This is while F1 bosses expect next season's new cars to be more than a second slower.