We’ll need to wait and see what impact the new regulations have.

Cars have undergone a huge evolution this year as new rules combined with the end of the V6 hybrid era give drivers a new challenge. Hybrid-turbo power units will make cars more powerful while changes to the exterior — such as fatter tyres and wider front and rear wings — are going to produce extra downforce and grip levels.

“From a bodywork and suspension and tyre point of view, this is the biggest change that I’ve personally experienced in almost 19 years in F1,” Toro Rosso’s technical chief James Key said earlier this year.

But while bigger cars bring with them more speed, concerns have been raised about how drivers will go about overtaking. Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg has questioned how rivals will get past each other on narrow circuits like Monaco and Daniel Ricciardo echoed that same sentiment last week.

But Red Bull isn’t so sure this concern is justified. The team’s chief technical officer Adrian Newey says overtaking on straights might actually be easier with the new aerodynamic forces in play.

“One of the aspects of having a car wider, you could argue, is that it could be more difficult to overtake,” Newey said. “However, due to the aerodynamic effect and more drag effect it will have, the more time you will spend on the straights, you will have more opportunity than previous years to overtake in this kind of condition.”

The team’s head of aerodynamics Dan Fallows agreed.

“The more downforce cars produce the more they can be affected by other cars in terms of their drag,” he said. “So it could be that cars are able to run closer behind another car to use the slipstream down the straight, so overtaking in that sense could actually be easier.”

Chief car engineer Paul Monaghan also said more durable tyres would aid drivers to overtake.

Will we actually see more overtaking this season?Source:Getty Images

Red Bull is hoping revamped Renault engines will give it the power to take on reigning champions Mercedes in 2017.

Red Bull’s Renault engines, branded as Tag-Heuer, powered the team to two wins last season with Dutch teenager Max Verstappen and Ricciardo. They were the only drivers apart from Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and now-retired world champion Nico Rosberg to win races in 2016.

“It’s a brand new engine this year, a change of philosophy,” team principal Christian Horner said in a pre-season interview conducted by the team. “They (Renault) have had a big winter.

“We’re hoping for a step up in performance and if that’s delivered then hopefully we can really be a challenger team this year and give the Mercedes and Ferraris a hard time.”

Horner said he couldn’t wait to see how teams dealt with the changes to the sport this season.

“What excites us most about 2017 is the opportunities that arise from these new regulations. It’s going to be fascinating to see who’s got it right and who’s got it wrong,” said the Briton, whose team finished second in the Constructors Championship last year.

“You’ll see big increments early on because the regulations are pretty immature. I think there is going to be low-hanging fruit early on to make sizeable steps.

“That’s going to push every department in the whole team to try and outwit, outsmart, out-develop and out-produce our rivals. That’s going to be a stellar challenge in F1 this year.”

— with AAP