Domenicali braced for teams to find 2022 ‘loopholes’

Formula 1 boss Stefano Domenicali is not ruling out a team, or several, to find a loophole within the new regulations overhaul coming our way this season.

The new 2022 cars are set to look radically different from their 2021 predecessors as Formula 1 continues on its quest to re-capture the lost art of close, competitive racing between the current 10 teams on the grid.

As always when the rule book changes, it breeds a potential opportunity for the designers and engineers behind the scenes to produce innovations that are completely compliant with the new regulations via a loophole.

Many use the example of Brawn’s double diffuser introduction helping them clinch the World Championship titles back in 2009, and Domenicali cannot categorically deny that something similar could happen in 2022.

“That could be the case,”Domenicali told Sport 1. “Because with new rules you never know if a team has found a loophole.

But, even though exploiting loopholes are not completely off the table, Domenicali actually suspects that shock success from teams that currently occupy the Formula 1 midfield could come instead by following different development paths with their cars over the course of the season.

He added: “I rather expect that one or two teams have taken a different development direction than that they have found a loophole in the regulations.”

Formula 1 unveiled a 2022 show car back at the 2021 British Grand Prix but, rather unsurprisingly, Domenicali has heard on the grapevine that some of the 2022 challengers are going to look different compared to what we saw at Silverstone.

“The cars should enable the drivers to drive closer behind each other and thus to duel with each other even more intensively.

“If you ask me whether we will see an extremely tight field from the first race, I don’t think so. But due to the restrictions on the further development of the cars and the budget cap, the gap should close faster.

“In any case, I’m really looking forward to the new cars. I’ve been told that some of them will look different from the model we presented at Silverstone. I am curious myself.”