As per the 2021 regulations, Formula 1 teams are not permitted to make any chassis modifications for 2020 and 2021. The primary reason behind the move is for F1 to keep the costs as low as possible. When he spoke to Motorsport.com, AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost dismissed any chances of bending the rules.

He said, “The FIA checks the wind tunnel and makes videos and photos of it. This means that you can’t just put a car in the wind tunnel, because that difference would be immediately noticeable. In addition, the FIA can retrieve images from the wind tunnel and they can check the last model checked.”

While he confessed that it only takes a stroke of genius to find a loophole and circumvent the rules, risk outweighs the reward. The AlphaTauri team principal disclosed that the FIA has access to every piece of data.

So the onus is on the team to try and have their own data match that of the wind tunnel. In addition to that, there is a high chance of things going wrong. This is because, too many people are in charge of maintaining the wind tunnel.

What else did the AlphaTauri boss say?

Admittedly there are a couple of special cases from this regulation. A notable exception is the McLaren F1 team, however they have a valid reason to make some adjustments. The Woking team is switching from the Renault power unit to Mercedes in 2021 and the Mercedes engine may not be able to fit in the current chassis. Hence, there is a need to adapt it accordingly to adhere to the new requirements.

Speaking on the McLaren situation, Tost said, ”That’s a matter between the FIA and McLaren. Of course they are allowed to modify part of the engine, because the Renault engine is of course very different in design from that of Mercedes. However, it is up to the FIA to check that.”

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Meanwhile, AlphaTauri was supposed to make its grand debut in 2020, but the coronavirus pandemic halted those plans. In 2019, the team had a heck of a swansong when Daniil Kvyat and Pierre Gasly bagged podiums for the erstwhile Toro Rosso team.