Red Bull's Newey: 2017 regulations are a guessing game

Red Bull design guru Adrian Newey says that there are no guarantees when it comes to successfully interpreting  this year's huge regulation overhaul.

With the emphasis in 2017 on chassis efficiency rather than engine performance, pundits are predicting that the changes play into the hands of legendary engineer's genius, but Newey is remaining modest and guarded on that prospect.

"Whenever there is a regulation change, some teams read the regulations better than others," Newey told Sky Sports F1.

"Typically the big teams, who have the bigger resource, read them better, but when we had the last big regulation change in 2009 that wasn't the case.

"It was Brawn and ourselves who read them correctly, and the grandees, then Ferrari and McLaren, who struggled a bit."

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Newey insists that it all boils down to making the right engineering choice, which itself involves some educated guess work.

"You have lots of ideas which you have to channel down to a direction and a philosophy for the car. Although we are one of the bigger teams we don't have the resources to look at all avenues simultaneously.

"It's [a case of] 'this is the avenue we believe is the correct one' and we hope we are right. There is always the chance that there is an avenue or direction which someone else has taken which is superior."

Pre-season testing should provide an indication of where everyone stands in terms of relative performance but as far as F1i is concerned, we'll gladly place a wager on Newey choosing the right direction. Wait and see...

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