With the pandemic causing F1 to delay the raft of new regulation until 2022, next season teams will use the cars they used this year, albeit with a limited amount of updates.

To facilitate this, teams are being given development tokens, and Ferrari's, head of chassis area, Simone Resta admits that the Italian team's will be used for development of the rear of the SF1000.

"We will redo the rear of the car," he tells Autosprint. "We think that this is the area that will allow more room for development between chassis and aerodynamics for 2021.

"Furthermore, the rear of the car will be affected by regulatory changes that the FIA are introducing to reduce the aerodynamic load in order to limit the stress on the tyres," he adds. "As a result of these changes, all teams will lose a number of points of downforce, and it will be essential to work to recover as much as possible.

"All of this makes us believe that the most important area in which to spend development tokens is the rear."

All the teams will have two development tokens, and they are free to use these in whichever way they see fit, be it upgrading one significant area on the car - as Ferrari is doing - or two less significant areas.

As previously reported, a row is already brewing over a loophole which will allow both Racing Point and AlphaTauri to upgrade certain components without having to use their tokens. Racing Point is to use Mercedes 2020 gearbox and suspension components, while AlphaTauri will use a number of Red Bull's 2020 components.

In addition to the reworking of the rear of the car, Ferrari will also have an all-new engine, nonetheless Resta is already playing down the Maranello outfit's hopes.

"Freedom is not as total as it appears," he says. "You can develop the engine freely but it will be frozen from the first 2021 race onwards. Then you can't touch it any more.

"The aerodynamics, even if free, are still limited in form by what structure is underneath," he adds. "You have to consider aerodynamics like a dress: it must be worn over a body, so in a certain sense the dimensions of the body affect the final shape.

"So if the nose structure remains the same, I may be able to design a new front wing but my creative autonomy will still be limited," he admits. "All these freezes and limitations lead us to think that we will find it difficult to reasonably recover in a single season the gap we have now to the leaders."

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by kenji, 21/10/2020 11:29

"@ Editor...I now read where RP have stated that they are already running Mercedes '20 rear suspension."

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2. Posted by kenji, 20/10/2020 13:53

"Hi Editor...thanks for the rapid response. Sounds dodgy to me. No wonder the other teams are going a bit bogey. Interesting to see how this one pans out....."

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3. Posted by Editor, 20/10/2020 12:53

"@ Kenji

As previously reported, Racing Point and AlphaTauri are currently using 2019 components from Mercedes and Red Bull.

Next season they can upgrade to the 2020 versions without needing to use their tokens."

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4. Posted by kenji, 20/10/2020 12:49

"Just to be absolutely clear...are you saying that Alpha Tauri and RP get the upgraded components from '20 to '21 PLUS two development tokens as well? If so then that certainly seems like a rather lopsided approach which should be sorted out ASAP owing to the time element. What is the argument supporting this apparent anomaly?"

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Ferrari to focus on rear of car for 2021

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