Newey: New rules pose a lot of challenges

Red Bull ace Formula 1 designer Adrian Newey says the key to unlocking performance from the new rules, set to come into effect in 2017, will be in the smaller details.

Next year's new aerodynamic regulations aim to make F1 cars faster and better looking. This has inspired Newey to spend much more time on the project than he did with last year's car, thus he has had a big hand in the concept and design of Red Bull's 2017 challenger.

Newey said of the new rules, "It's a very different set of aerodynamic regulations and it poses a lot of challenges. When you first look at them, the changes appear relatively small. Although the tyres are wider, the inside shoulder is in roughly the same place."

"Once you get into the details then it's actually hugely different and throwing up a lot of challenges, and with challenges come opportunities."

The sport's most successful designer believes there will be those in the paddock that get their sums right and others that will not, which could widen the gap between the front runners and the back of the grid.

"I think it's inevitable that the lap time spread across the grid will be bigger than it has been this year," explained Newey.

"Some people will come up with better aerodynamic solutions to this set of regulations than others, but whether that simply means one team dominates or whether some teams will be good a certain circuits and not so good at others, it is too early to tell."

Asked if the 2017 regulations provided him personally with inspiration and motivation, he replied, "The regulations we have been working to up until the end of this year obviously came in for the 2009 season, and while there have been some relatively small changes over the years, they have been exactly that."

"The cars have all evolved quite heavily over several seasons to one set of regulations, to the point of course that now when you look at the cars they all look pretty similar to each other. I guess it's a form of flattery to us that if you look at the original 2009 car, there has been a convergence towards that car, but that of course is all history now," mused Newey.