Key: 2017 regulations will be massive

As the 2017 season approaches, new regulation changes are set to hit Formula 1 as Toro Rosso tech boss James Key reckons its the biggest change in 19 years. 

The regulation changes involve wider tyres and new aerodynamic guidelines, with the aim of making the cars much faster.

Key explained that since he entered the sport, such drastic changes have never been implemented, calling it bigger than the 2009 and 2014 regulation changes.

He also went onto add that there is only so much testing a team can do virtually, and the true test in February will be exciting to witness as teams can see who adapted the best.

"Yes, it's a massive change," Key said on the Toro Rosso website.

"Honestly, from a bodywork and suspension and tyre point of view, this is the biggest one that I've personally experienced in almost 19 years in F1.

"From a chassis point of view, it's the biggest change of the past two decades, even bigger than 2009 and certainly bigger than 2014. These are exciting times!

"Basically, there are two processes going on. Firstly, you've got the enormous amount of research you have to do to try and understand what makes a car with these new regulations tick, without any experience of them in reality, because for a long time, we can only operate in the virtual world. That process comes to an end in January.

"Secondly you hit the track for winter testing, after which you go and do a season with all this work that for a long time existed in your virtual world. We tentatively started the 2017 project in September 2015, so it's been 14 months so far. Back then, the chassis regulations hadn't been finalised but we thought that with any change of this nature, the sooner you start, the better."