In an interview with Autosport, Zak Brown expressed his optimism that one-team supremacy will not be a feature of the following season.
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With the new aero regulations in place, McLaren CEO Zak Brown discussed his hopes for the 2022 Formula One season, admitting that he would be shocked if one team dominates. Since the start of the Turbo-Hybrid era in 2014, F1 has been dominated by one team, Mercedes, who has been on a winning streak since then, earning championship titles from 2014 to 2020, before Red Bull broke their stranglehold in 2021.
After a dramatic and controversial season capped with a season finale for the ages in Abu Dhabi, a race that took controversy to a new level, Red Bull’s ace Max Verstappen succeeded in taking the F1 Drivers’ Crown away from Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton in 2021. Mercedes, on the other hand, held the Constructors’ Title in their possession, making it a record-breaking eight years in a row.
In an interview with Autosport, Zak Brown expressed his optimism that one-team supremacy will not be a feature of the following season, admitting that he would be shocked if any of F1’s 10 teams ends up dominating in 2022, thanks to the cost cap and new aero regulations.
“I’d be very surprised if next year was a boring campaign with the new cars,” he said. “I think you’ll get some winners and losers and some surprises. I’d be surprised if there was dominance.”
A new era of regulations always affords teams the opportunity to uncover a loophole in the rules, or a silver bullet, as was the case with Brawn GP in 2009, when their double diffuser gave them the advantage long enough to win both championships before other teams could catch up.
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“You could get a team who is maybe dominant for a small period of time like Brawn was when they figured out something in 2009. But I think with the cost cap now in place, you can feel the tension that is put on the teams who stopped developing this car in expensive of next year, etc,” Brown continued.
“I’d be surprised if the field didn’t continue to get closer. My hopes are that we go into Abu Dhabi next year with three or four cars who can compete for the championship, I think that’s the ultimate goal. I think this year has been spectacular, up and down the grid, and I hope with what has been put in place and the new car designs, and the intent of the new aerodynamic package, that what we’re seeing now is just a taste of the future.”
