Williams co-founder and former engineering director Sir Patrick Head says anyone who believes the 2017 regulations will tighten up the grid must have “rocks in their heads”.
New regulations aimed at reducing lap times and making the cars more aggressive with bigger wings and wider tyres will debut this year.
However, Head fully expects the field to spread out as a result and, naturally, the well-funded manufacturer teams to dominate, whilst the lesser-funded teams will struggle.
“Any time you make significant changes the advantage will always go to the bigger teams,” Head told the Guardian. “Because they have more resources, they have more capability to parallel develop their existing car and work on design of their new car.
“When you have 750 employees or more against, say, Force India’s 300, of course the bigger teams can do more.
“If anybody was thinking of these rules with the aim of closing the field up then they’ve got rocks in their head. Any idea it will close the field up is nonsense.
“I don’t think anyone ever said that was the target, I think the target was to make it more attractive to create a bit more excitement.”
Head hinted that Mercedes is likely to remain a dominant force despite bullish comments from Red Bull, as outright engine power will still play a major role.
“What makes the engine fractionally more important is that with more downforce, which they will undoubtedly have, your percentage at full throttle – the percentage of the lap at which you are power limited rather than grip limited – will be higher, so if you have that bit more power it will give a slight advantage.”
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