Renault executive director Marcin Budkowski believes the new aero changes coming into Formula 1 this season could help close the gap between the top teams and the midfield.
In 2019, a simpler design is being introduced with wider front and rear wings, smaller bargeboards and fewer winglets which divert airflow as much as creating downforce, all with the aim of allowing the cars to follow easier.
Though the effectiveness of the tweaks is still up for debate, the engineers have admitted there was a drop in performance in the initial development compared to last year.
“I am not going to tell you exactly where we are, but the loss was significant at the beginning, yes," Budkowski told Autosport.
If it was tough for the midfield teams, then the former FIA technical director is fairly sure it was worse for Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull.
“It is difficult to say whether it was more significant for us or others, but my personal opinion of this is that the bigger teams, the best teams, will have lost more performance," he said.
“That is because by definition they had a quicker car, so they had a more optimised car. Everything was more in tune and optimised, so they will have made a bigger step back."
However: "They are also better equipped to recover because they have bigger structures with more resources," Budkowski noted.
“Also, the understanding they had that allowed them to get to that previous level, they still have it, so they can use it to try to find further performance.
“So it is difficult to say who has made the bigger step back and who has made the bigger step forward."
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Regardless, the Renault chief does think the top teams will find it harder to generate the kind of advantage they had last year, which left team owner Gene Haas to describe the midfield as 'F1.5'.
“My feeling is that probably you will have closed the gap a little bit between the top teams and the midfield because the regulations are more restrictive than they were before," he explained. "There is less available performance.”
