Hamilton hits out at new F1 regulations: “It’s the same as the past”

In the opening rounds of the season, a number of drivers, including Carlos Sainz, revealed that running behind another car is more difficult than last year.

The whole premise of the new regulations for 2022 were to close the performance gap between the fastest and slowest team, and to make wheel-to-wheel racing easier.

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It seems as teams have developed their cars aerodynamically, the amount of turbulent air produced has increased, meaning it is more difficult to run behind another car without losing aero performance.

Speaking in Australia, Hamilton was asked about the regulations and the impact of dirty air in 2023.

“Nope, it’s the same as the past,” he said.

“I think last year for us was pretty bad with the bouncing, because you’ve got the turbulence and the bouncing, whereas this year we don’t have the bouncing, so we have less issues following cars. 

“I think it’s still a little bit better than the previous generation of cars. But hasn’t delivered everything that it said it would, so got some improvements to make hopefully for the future.”

F1’s own technical director Pat Symonds dismissed any early concerns following Sainz’s initial comments in Saudi Arabia.

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“I’m not sure,” he added. “Our statistics of how close the cars are following don’t appear to have changed much.

“We’ve only had two samples so far so it’s a little bit difficult to tell. But it’s certainly something that we and the FIA will keep monitoring and we’ll have a look.”