© Jiri Krenek for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
Valtteri Bottas has tried out both the 2022 Mercedes and the 2022 Alfa Romeo in the simulator, and he says they don’t feel totally different from 2021 cars.
In 2022 Formula 1 will introduce new ground effect cars, in an effort to allow drivers to follow each other more closely.
Nobody really knows what the cars will feel like on the track, but some drivers already had the opportunity to try them out in the simulator.
Well, Valtteri Bottas had the opportunity to try out two – the Mercedes car and the Alfa Romeo car. Having driven two different 2022 cars, the Finn says they don’t feel totally different from the current machines.
“At least at that point, it felt like the cars are a bit off in terms of downforce,” Bottas told Motorsport.com
“But the overall feeling, at least in the sim, wasn’t that dissimilar in either of the simulators. We can’t simulate following other cars and stuff like that, but it’s not crazy different.
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“Maybe still a bit less downforce but, like I said, that will change.”
The current high-downforce F1 cars were breaking lap record after lap record, but it is expected that next year the cars will be a bit slower. Valtteri says he’s sad to see the old cars go.
“It’s been fun, especially last year, the cars were even faster than this year, with more downforce.
“They’ve been nice but I’ll let you know next year how the new ones [are]. If the racing is better and we can follow more closer, then it should be even more fun.
“And I think the cars in the future will be as quick as now pretty quickly. Hopefully that’s going to be the case,” Valtteri concluded.
