Valtteri Bottas and Lando Norris have disagreed over the new Formula 1 cars after they both tried them in simulator tests.
The 2022 F1 season will see new ground effect cars due to a rule change and McLaren driver Norris said they “won’t be as nice to drive” following the simulator.
“Definitely there will be a slightly different style,” Norris said. “I don’t think it’ll be as nice to drive in a way. I think it’ll be a little bit more on the limit in terms of pushing and so on.
“A little bit like F2 in a way, I think, where you see more fighting the car and stuff. But I could be wrong because things are always changing. It’s like what I drove one month ago is going to be quite very different to what I drive now, and it’s going to be very different probably again when we get to the first race.”
But Bottas, who joins Alfa Romeo from Mercedes for the upcoming season, disagrees and said the difference is minimal.
“At least at that point [when driving the simulator], it felt like the cars are a bit off in terms of downforce,” he said. “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. Maybe still a bit less downforce but, like I said, that will change.”
The car changes are aiming to improve aerodynamics to make racing more exciting but fans would argue this past season has been a thriller.
The title race came down to the final event of the season with Max Verstappen taking the title in the last lap of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.