Why have the rules shaken up the pecking order so much?
Over the past few years teams had just been evolving their cars from season to season. In stable regulations it was very hard make huge inroads on the advantage of the front teams. Everyone’s development rate is quite similar, so therefore there wasn’t much movement in the order of the teams. With these vast rule changes it is like pressing the reset button. Everyone is building a new car from scratch. They are all starting at the same level. This means that it has become perfectly possible for midfield teams to become front runners, and for front runners to sink into the midfield. From studying all the testing times this winter it looks like exactly that has happened. Most experts expected the field to spread out, but it seems the opposite may have happened. Why is that and are you surprised? I think most people based that theory on the last sweeping changes in 1998. Back then the cars became narrower, and we moved from slicks onto grooves. The field spread out in that season. However
