Formula 1’s proposed 2017 rule changes should be delayed until 2018, giving team bosses time to agree upon what it is they want to achieve, Williams technical chief Pat Symonds has warned.
The driver behind the overhaul was to make the cars “five to six seconds per lap quicker” and “more radical looking”, but following concerns raised by Pirelli and Mercedes, those changes have been watered down to the point that the cars will look almost identical to now.
Speaking at Autosport International, Symonds admitted the rules had been tweaked to such a degree that very little would change in 2017, other than wider tyres and wider wings.
That’s in stark contrast to what was originally proposed, which included wider bodywork, a much larger diffuser and larger bargeboards amongst other things.
“It’s a bit of a halfway house from the original proposal,” he told Autosport on Saturday.
Therefore the Briton feels it would be best if team bosses took another look at the proposals and drew up better plans, delaying the changes by a season to give them time to do so.
“I feel there may be some merit in thinking again and waiting until 2018,” he said. “But I suspect I won’t have much support from my fellow teams.
“There are some people who just want to get on and do things which is fair enough but I like to do things right rather than just do them.”
The sport’s leading figures will meet at the end of January and then again in February to agree the rules, with a set deadline of March 1st to have them drawn up and agreed upon.
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