The rule changes for 2019 have also been tipped to trigger a race between teams to recover lost down force at the start of the season. The convergence of designs during F1’s era of ultra-complex front wings means teams are now presented with an opportunity to go in different directions. Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has already suggested the pecking order could be turned on its head and Clear believes teams could be in trouble if a rival steals a march.
“Any change, whether it be big or small, tends to impact the programme because these cars are so highly developed around what you actually have on the car,” Clear said. “As soon as you change one part it does take a step back so I think we’ve probably all taken a step back, when we look at the new regulations and then gradually we will recover. “We will do our best, we will develop our best, but if somebody else has done a better job it won’t be enough. “If everybody else hasn’t, it will be enough. We simply don’t know.”
Jonathan Eddolls, Toro Rosso chief race engineer, believes it will turn the start of the season into “a bit of a development race” as teams’ respective solutions emerge. Though the start of the season could result in cars that look quite different, a unification of concepts is expected sooner or later. Williams performance Chief Rob Smedley said: “We’ve found some really clear directions of where we need to work to recover the performance.
“It will be very, very interesting, at the start of the season, to see the different concepts that come out. “Then you’ll probably find that there’ll be a really quick convergence, as usual, as we take the best concepts and blend that into the normal lookalike Formula 1 car.”
