Fernando Alonso has suggested that the current top teams in Formula 1 will have a little bit of concern heading into 2022 as the sport's new rules and regulations could threaten the status quo.

A new era in F1 dawns next season with overhauled cars and specifications that could potentially shake up the running order that we have become accustomed to in the last half-decade or so.

Indeed, it's very much been Mercedes' era since 2014 but Red Bull have closed the gap this season and the two are fighting it out for both the Drivers' and Constructors' crowns.

Naturally, they'll be hoping to retain their positions at the front of the field for 2022 onwards but with it a leap into the unknown, there is obvious scope for the other teams in the pack to close the gap or even overtake heading into the new campaign.

Certainly, Fernando Alonso will be hoping for that with his Alpine team and he's suggested that the top runners this year will have obvious concerns about losing their position of strength when F1 effectively hits the reset button:

“I think there is no guarantee and no feeling that you can put on the future on any team, basically.

“Probably even the top teams that are dominating now the sport, they are rightly concerned about the new rules and how they will interpret those cars.

“What you’ll see next year, in the first couple of races or the first year of that set of regulations, eventually, you will see the same result for four or five years is what we saw.

“A team that is dominant at the beginning of one set of rules, they seem to keep that advantage for years. Everything gets closer and closer, but the same one is winning.”

The main aim of 2022's new rules is to generate closer, more unpredictable racing - with a host of new aerodynamic regulations at the heart of that.

Hopefully, we'll see some new teams involved in the mix at the front, too, as this season has shown just how exciting F1 can be where there's more than one team with a shot at glory.