The Covid-19 pandemic is affecting the whole world, including Formula 1. The supreme category of Motorsport scheduled a new set of regulations for 2021, but the FIA, together with the ten teams on the grid, agreed to postpone them to 2022, amid the continuing uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic. That means that the 2021 cars will be more or less the same as the 2020 challengers, with no chance to really change the car or bring major updates. 

Mercedes still continues to lead the grid, with a car which comes from another planet compared to its direct challengers. Red Bull and Honda try to keep up the pace, but still Honda decided to leave the circus at the end of 2021.

And then, there's the midfield, a group of teams where Ferrari isn't used to be placed: the Maranello team is still hitting trouble with their 2020 challenger, the SF100 that, despite little upgrades, still can't find speed of grip. If Charles Leclerc tries to do what he can with hisw Ferrari, it's not the same for Sebastian Vettel, who continues to struggle to enter the top ten. The secret agreement between the Prancing Horse and the FIA about the Power Unit, signed between both parts last year, has left Ferrari out of the challenge for the third place in the constructor standings: it actually stands in sixth position. The only hope for 2021 is focued on the new power unit.

Mercedes said earlier this week the team has ceased development of its 2020 car, focusing entirely on the 2021 and 2022 challenger. Ferrari and Reanult are still working for 2020, but the projects for 2022 are already in the making. Roberto Chinchero reports that the italian team already passed the initial front crash test for their 2022 challenger, and so has Renault.

Ferrari has “already passed the FIA frontal crash test and the nose of the car has obtained the homologation of the governing body”, says the report. 

The rules for 2022 are clear: the teams can start working on aerodynamic starting from January 1, 2021, but there are no limitations about the structural parts of the single seater. 

Ferrari and Renault, which will be named Alpine from next year, when Fernando Alonso will make his return to the circus, are losing no time, but obviously this doesn't mean that the first homologated solution will be the definitive one: surely, Ferrari and Renault are already working hard to try to bounce back to the top of the grid with the new regulations.