Force India Thinks Top 3 F1 Teams Have A Huge Advantage After 2017 Pirelli Tests

The technical boss for Force India believes that Formula One’s top three teams have received a “huge advantage” having been selected to test Pirelli’s widened 2017-spec tires.

Earlier in the month, Sebastian Vettel became the first driver to test out the enlarged tires alongside a slew of aerodynamic upgrades set to be permitted from next season onwards. Alongside Ferrari, Red Bull Racing tested the new tires in a specially-equipped 2015 car last week while Mercedes-AMG will conduct a test in September.

Given the huge budgets of these three teams, they decided it was pertinent to get an early sample of the tires in the midst of the 2016 season all while simultaneously developing their 2017 cars.

Even so, Andy Green, the technical boss of Force India thinks the trio are getting a huge jump start on the rest of the field, says Auto Week.

“ The three teams that have built test cars for Pirelli are getting a huge advantage. All the others will only get their first experience early next year of what Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull are getting now.

“If we had the $2 million (to build a test car), we would have done it. We thought about it but in the timeframe it was simply not possible to do at the same time as our race program,” he said.

With the new tires and improved aerodynamics, 2017 F1 cars are expected to be four seconds a lap quicker than the 2016-spec machines.