Pat Symonds, who was originally set to retire at the end of 2022, has confirmed that he plans to stay on as F1’s chief technology officer for the foreseeable future.
Originally, Pat Symonds began working on F1’s technical issues in 2017, and that work was completed with the introduction of new rules and regulations that will come into force at the beginning of 2022.
Pat Symonds, who was Michael Schumacher’s race engineer in the 1990s and then Benetton’s technical director, was chief technical officer at Williams F1 in 2013 and 2016 before joining F1’s management team (FOM). joined.
With Ross Brawn stepping down from his role as director of motorsport, it was understood that Pat Symonds would also retire at the end of 2022. But Simmons said he plans to stay with the company for the foreseeable future.
“I had plans to retire last summer,” said Pat Symonds at the Autosport International business forum.
“I actually submitted an annual notice. I have to think about things like this.”
But Symonds says he changed his mind after discussing the situation with F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali.
“After my notice was accepted, Stefano came to hear about it. He said, ‘No, I don’t think that’s a good idea!’ I’m doing it. I plan to do it for a while.”
This means Pat Symonds will be a key figure in developing the next series of F1 regulation changes due to come into force in 2026, and he will be working with FIA single-seater director Nicholas Tombazis. are working on it.
Pat Symonds, who has been involved in supporting F1’s regulation changes since 2009, said he was pleased with the recent rule changes that have helped improve the spectacle of racing on track.
“We put together a really talented team, a very small team, and we really went back to basics,” he said, adding that the process that followed in 2009 “compared to what we did in 2022. He added that it looked like a project.
“We had two objectives. One was to make the wake behind the car less harmful, because it’s there, you can’t get rid of it.”
“And secondly, we accepted that there was a turbulent wake of ‘dirty air’ and tried to make the cars running in that wake less affected than in the past.”
“We’ve seen several different solutions. The cars looked different. The drivers were very complementary. The stats needed a better word, but the cars were close together. was showing
There have been criticisms that the new F1 regulations have failed to level the playing field as promised. The 2022 F1 season was again dominated by the top three teams, notably Red Bull Racing, who won 17 out of 22 races.
McLaren’s Lando Norris is the only other team outside of Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes to finish on the podium throughout the 2022 season.
But Pat Simmons said he is confident the new rules will prove their worth in the future as teams continue to adapt and find new ways to capitalize on opportunities.
“Broadly speaking, I think it worked out. I think we’ve had some success,” said Pat Simmons.
Category: F1 / liberty media
