Formula 1 cars may not be as slow as some feared in 2022.
There is no doubt that the field will be generally slower next year as Formula 1 enforces all-new technical rules designed to make overtaking easier.
Championship leader Max Verstappen admits he will miss "the laptimes and the speed".
But what he will not miss is that "you can't follow each other" with the current generation of cars.
However, F1's chief technical officer, Pat Symonds, has played down earlier fears that the 2022 cars will be many seconds slower per lap.
"We can imagine that the new cars will be on average only half a second per lap slower than the current ones at the beginning of the season," he told Auto Motor und Sport.
"And it could be a tie by the end of the season. I say 'could' because we don't know yet what pace of development these regulations will allow."
It is believed the medium-fast to high-speed corners could actually be taken faster by the 2022 cars due to the aerodynamic 'Venturi' effect.
Top speeds will then be lower.
Symonds insists: "We're not worried about the laptimes. The primary concern is about better racing."
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