Formula 1 managing director Ross Brawn 'convinced' of better racing in 2022

Formula 1 managing director Ross Brawn says the sport's new technical rules will lead to closer racing and a more competitive field this year.

Brawn says he is «convinced» the cars will be «closer in performance from the very beginning» and «confident these rules will lead to much better racing».

Brawn said: «We may see we don't quite hit a bull's eye in terms of following [directly behind another car] but we will still be so massively ahead of where we were because the old cars were dreadful [for racing].»

The new technical regulations amount to the biggest change to the cars in F1 for 40 years. They redefine how a car works in an attempt to solve the problems faced by drivers in recent years when it came to overtaking.

An F1 car's speed is largely defined by aerodynamics. In the past, turbulent air behind cars disrupted the car behind and led to it losing close to half its total downforce when following closely.

F1's calculations suggest that with the new rules this year, a car following directly behind another will retain 85% of its total downforce when one metre behind, rather than 57% in previous years.

On top of that, the restrictive nature of the rules — worked on collaboratively by F1 and governing body the FIA — means the cars should be closer together in terms of performance, with less opportunity for teams to find big advantages.

Brawn said: «Every decision we have made has been towards not dumbing down the sport but making it more achievable to more of the teams and to get a closer competition going on while still leaving it a meritocracy.»

Brawn said he did not expect the rules to change the order too much — unlike in 2009, when a previous rule change saw McLaren and Ferrari, who had fought out the championship the