As Formula 1 steps into its new era in 2022, Racecar Engineering sat down with Mercedes-AMG Formula 1 Technical Director Mike Elliot and Managing Director of Mercedes HPP Hywel Thomas to explain what they believe are the biggest challenges of the 2022 regulations. ‘I think the regulations are engaging in two ways,’ says Elliot. ‘The first is that fundamentally, we’ve got a completely different shape of the car. The way it’s going to perform aerodynamically is entirely different. And that’s a big challenge because a lot of the understanding you’ve gained over the last few decades you put to one side, and you’ve got to learn something new, and that’s what we’ve been doing throughout 2021 and through the winter. ‘The second big challenge is the way the rules are written is completely different to the previous regulations. The rules are used to give the designers boxes to design elements. When teams designed elements of the car in the past generation, they worked in boxes which often found the best solution was to have the furthest surface right on the edge of the box, forcing a vertical and horizontal surface interface at the corner of said box. The new regulations are written as CAD surfaces, and teams must design within tolerances to the CAD surfaces. Fundamentally, the 2022 Formula 1 technical regulations have turned many of the sharp 90-degree intersections into sweeping sections due to the structur...