F1: Small teams troubled by rules delay

The delay in finalizing Formula 1's 2017 regulations is making life difficult for small teams, according to Force India chief operating officer Otmar Szafnauer.

Although the announcement of significant rule changes for 2017 was made last May, debates over the specific framework have dragged on, with a crisis meeting at London's Heathrow Airport under way on Friday.

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Szafnauer claims teams operating on limited resources and staffing levels, such as Force India, are consequently finding 2016 hard to plan.

"Definitely for us the delays make things more difficult," said Szafnauer. "It would have been better if we'd known earlier, because we don't have the resources to start development on guesswork, whereas maybe the others do.

"What we can't do is say, 'Well, if this happens, let's do this, this and this.' We need to wait until the regulations are out because of our limited amount of resource. Once they are refined then we will do a deeper dive and we'll gradually switch over the resources as we deem appropriate for '16 and '17 competitiveness."

Timing that crossover point will also pose its own problems.

"We don't have 800 people," Szafnauer added. "So therefore running a parallel program is tough for us. Knowing when to switch is a strategic decision we're going to have to make.

"Obviously we haven't decided that yet, and we won't decide until we know our relative competitiveness in 2016. What you don't want to do is not be competitive in '16, and also jeopardize '17. That's not good.

"You have to know how competitive you are, where you stand in the championship, and then switch at the right time so that in '17 you are competitive as well."

Szafnauer at least feels the debates over the 2017 regulations are drawing to a close. He shares concerns changes to make the cars up to five seconds per lap quicker could impact on overtaking.

"It needs to be more than about speed," Szafnauer said. "My personal opinion is the cars should obviously be quicker because we need to differentiate ourselves from GP2 a little more. It would be nice to look back on the cars setting track records. We haven't been doing that lately.

"When it comes to overtaking, hopefully for '17 the regulations will definitely enable that."

Originally on Autosport.com