McLaren Executive Director Zak Brown believes Formula 1 teams should have less influence in deciding future regulations amid the first standoff between manufacturers and owners Liberty Media.

Currently, many of the team bosses along with the FIA and F1 bosses form what is known as the Strategy Group to decide the sport's rules but many argue it is this that has led to the poor decisions made in recent years.

Since completing their takeover in January, Liberty has tried to assume that power but has come up against the opposition of the likes of Ferrari and Mercedes at their first hurdle with the two threatening to quit over proposed engine changes for 2021.

"At some point, they’re going to need and make some decisions and F1 teams are either going to have to get on board or not," Brown told Sky Sports referring to the engines. "I believe they will because F1 is a powerful business for all of us. Some of us live in F1, I think Ferrari is who Ferrari is because they’ve been in F1 for 60 years."

But it is this exact type of situation which the McLaren boss points too as proof the current system does not work.

"I think we need to change the governance of the sport. I think the teams have too much of a say, we definitely need a voice, we need a say, but there are too many roadblocks," he claims.

"We need to get Liberty get on with it, they want to make the sport better, they’re focusing on the fans which we’ve not done for a long time. I think we’ll have some turbulent negotiations here but hopefully, we’ll get them over with quickly and we can get back to racing."

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At a time when many see F1 as a sport won more by the engineers than those behind the wheel, Lewis Hamilton also suggests drivers should be given a say in deciding the rules.

"I don’t think it’s a bad thing for them to include us, or some of us, because sometimes they make decisions about the car and sometimes it’s not been the best thing," the four-time champion stated. "It’s not bad to have our viewpoint on how that is going to affect the driving and the racing because in a racing situation we do our best."

The Mercedes driver even offered his own 10 years of experience adding: "I’m open if anybody wants to talk to me. My door is open if they want to talk."

Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo and advisor Helmut Marko are both feeling more confident about the team's chances in 2018, with work on the RB14 ahead of schedule.

The Milton Keynes outfit is hoping to avoid a repeat of the slow start to this season, which saw them fall behind Mercedes and Ferrari as the third best team despite rule changes which were expected to suit their strength in aerodynamics.

Their situation wasn't helped by correlation issues between the data coming from the windtunnel and that gathered on the racetrack but Marko admits it is a long-standing problem the team has had.

"For many years the philosophy of Adrian Newey was to present the car as late as possible, but for next year we have changed the approach," he told Austria's Servus TV. "Now we are ahead of schedule by two weeks compared to last year."

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Red Bull's ambitions for 2018 were already much improved after their strength of find performance throughout the year was repeated and resulted in two wins on merit for Max Verstappen in Malaysia and Mexico.

"The rate of development has been amazing, so I'm hoping if we can start on the right foot in 2018, you would argue we would be the favourites," Ricciardo claimed, speaking to Motorsport.com.

"If we started with Mercedes and Ferrari [levels of performance], our development is pretty strong."

As has been the case throughout the hybrid era, however, much of Red Bull's competitiveness will depend on one thing, as Marko pointed out.

"If the engine is reliable, we will be able to fight in the leading group already from the first race of the season,"  he said, putting the pressure on Renault.

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko is upbeat about the prospects of junior team Toro Rosso in 2018 from their driver line-up to the change to Honda engines.

The Faenza-based team ended last season on a negative note with just one point-scoring finish in the final six races and losing out on sixth in the Constructors' Championship to Renault at the final race in Abu Dhabi.

This was due mostly to the changing in their driver pairing from the start of the year, as Brendon Hartley and Pierre Gasly replaced Carlos Sainz and Daniil Kvyat, with neither of the rookies managing a top 10 result.

Marko, however, looked past that claiming in an interview with the official Formula 1 website: “Toro Rosso ran into unbelievable reliability problems - unbelievable! Also in terms of the car development, it was not what it should have been. I think for the circumstances Gasly and Hartley did really well."

The return of the Kiwi to the Red Bull program after being dropped seven years prior was certainly one of the surprise stories of 2017 and also led to a busy stint of eight races in eight weekends as he combined Toro Rosso and WEC duties.

"Hiring Brendon was out of the norm - a different story - and we are happy with him," the Austrian added. "The good news is that he doesn't have to switch anymore between Porsche and F1, so I am sure for next season Toro Rosso has a very promising driver line-up."

Perhaps the most significant factor in determining their 2018 campaign will be the performance of Honda after agreeing to take on the Japanese manufacturer to enable McLaren to end their partnership after three tough years. 

"We are very happy with the Toro Rosso and Honda cooperation," Marko claimed, however. "We do believe in Honda otherwise we wouldn’t have made that deal.

"I am very impressed with the facilities that they have and their determination to win. It is just a matter of bringing everything together and we believe that this moment will arrive sooner than everybody is expecting."

The Red Bull advisor even hinted it could be the start of a greater alliance in the future with the senior team considering its engine future.

"We will observe very closely - beyond 2018 everything is open!" Marko concluded.

Mercedes Motorsport boss Toto Wolff wishes he could take a saw to the Halo and cut it off the 2018 car, describing the cockpit protection device as "dreadful".

Next year, all cars must include the controversial Halo structure after the FIA forced its introduction on safety grounds despite teams initially voting nine-to-one against the move.

Though the German manufacturer came up with the design, Wolff admits it looks out of place on a Formula 1 car and hopes it is just a temporary inclusion before another idea, possibly the Shield, replaces it.

"It's a dreadful piece!" he told ESPN. "It's a huge piece of metal, much too heavy, it feels completely alien and I'd like to saw it off if I could!

"Maybe in the future we can find a solution that is a little bit more aesthetically pleasing than the Halo."

To allow for the Halo, the minimum weight of the 2018 cars has been raised by five kilograms, however, with teams already struggling to reduce the weight due to the power unit, the Austrian claims that really isn't sufficient.

"With all the bolts and nuts it's probably 10 kilos that you have up at the highest point in the car," he explained. "So the centre of gravity moves up a large chunk and you need to compensate for that. So it's all wrong!"

Esteban Ocon has revealed he turned to Mercedes Motorsport boss Toto Wolff for "help" with how to deal with Force India teammate Sergio Perez during their turbulent relationship this year.

The Frenchman is a part of the German manufacturer's young driver program and though most of the headlines he made were positive in an excellent first full season in Formula 1, his performances did cause tension with the Mexican.

They began in Canada after Perez would not allow his faster teammate through amid confusion over whether the Force India pit wall had issued an order telling him to do so, that then spiralled with the pair colliding at the next race in Baku before coming to blows twice at the Belgian Grand Prix.

"Probably the first thing I did was to call him (Wolff) and see how they dealt with Lewis (Hamilton) and Nico (Rosberg) back then,” the 21-year-old told Motorsport.com.

"I had their point of view, I had Force India’s point of view. It’s always helpful to get different point of views, but especially from Mercedes. They are world champions so they know what they are talking about.

"I can’t go into detail [about the advice] but it was just a good help."

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The situation became such at the Silverstone-based team that, though they would score 16 double points finishes out of 20 races, the two drivers would not be allowed to race each other after the events at Spa, causing frustration over the final races.

Perez has already claimed the team orders need to be lifted for 2018 and Ocon agrees the relationship between the pair is now on a much better platform.

"It’s important we have respect for each other and it’s important for the team that there is a good atmosphere and we work together to develop the car correctly," he claimed. “We are maybe not going to go on holidays together, but we get along well.”

Lewis Hamilton is anticipating Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas will be better prepared to deal with the challenge of fighting for the Formula 1 championship in 2018.

The Finn made a late move in January to the Brackley-based team for this past season, replacing Nico Rosberg after his shock retirement, and impressed scoring the first three poles and three wins of his F1 career.

Certainly, his contribution was decisive in Mercedes easing to a fourth consecutive Constructors' title and the now four-time world champion praising how Bottas adjusted from a midfield team in Williams to the dominant force of the past few seasons.

"Valtteri's been an amazing teammate this year," said Hamilton. "It's not easy at all to go to a team for the first year, particularly as you already had plans to be somewhere else at the beginning of the year."

The second half of the year did see a dip in the 28-year-old's performance which dropped him back from the title battle but the Briton is sure Bottas will learn from the experience, highlighting his performance in Abu Dhabi.

"The pressures of fighting for a world championship is not the easiest of things," he admitted. "He's very strong-minded and he came back and finished up strong so I anticipate he's going to be stronger next year, so I'm going to make sure I'm on my toes."

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The change in atmosphere the former GP3 champion's arrival also brought at Mercedes was very noticeable, after the increasing tensions between Hamilton and Rosberg over the past three years.

"There's incredible respect between us and our work ethic is similar and I think our family morals are similar," Lewis explained.

"There's nothing in the background happening at all, there's zero, there's perfect harmony within the team. We just want to be quickest on the track, he's not trying to do it any other way but through his talent, and he sees that with me, which is why it's super easy to get on."

Ferrari has become the first team to pass the required FIA frontal crash tests with their 2018 car after conducting them in an FIA-approved facility in Italy late last week.

The news came just a few days after the Scuderia also would be the first to announce the launch date of their new car, currently being developed under the code name of 669 at Maranello, which will be online on February 22nd.

The issue of frontal testing has become more important in recent years with teams pushing the design of the noses to improve aerodynamic performance, indeed, the FIA opted to change the regulation which meant all cars had to pass the mandatory test before being allowed to run on a track.

These tests, however, don't include the Halo, with the mountings of the new cockpit device also needing to pass loading tests set out by the governing body before being declared legal and Ferrari is also reportedly ensuring the suspension on the 2018 car meets a new technical directive put out by Race Director Charlie Whiting before Christmas.

Soon-to-be former Honda Formula 1 boss Yusuke Hasegawa is confident the Japanese manufacturer will enjoy better reliability with their engines in 2018.

This season, the performance was badly impacted after flaws were discovered in the heavily revised design to bring their engine philosophy more in line with the other suppliers on the grid.

Those problems would ultimately see McLaren end their partnership with Honda after just three seasons, however, in the second half of the year, progress on both the performance and reliability did allow the British team to score points at five of the last seven races.

"Our performance improvement level is something to be proud of," Hasegawa, who will move on to become Chief Engineer at Honda next year, told Motorsport.com.

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Now the team is preparing for a new chapter with Toro Rosso from next season and the Japanese is sure the upward trend will continue as they run a more organised development plan.

"We are confident we can confirm the reliability," he claimed. "[This year] we needed to sacrifice time checking reliability to get the updates to the track. It was strategic.

"It's very bad that we have had failures on the track and on the dyno," Hasegawa added. "Reliability, we had a clear target, which is we have to be able to complete five races with one engine but we haven't achieved that."

Formula 1's governing body, the FIA has targeted the use of clever steering systems to improve aerodynamic performance as part of a long-running clampdown on trick suspensions.

Race Director Charlie Whiting has been assessing such devices aimed at mimicking the FRIC (Front and Rear InterConnected) suspension which has banned in 2014 with mainly the top teams testing the boundaries of the regulations with additional pre-loaded elements which were designed to control the ride height of the car through the corners.

The latest concept is focused on an idea that teams are using the input through the steering to exaggerate the amount a car lowers through the corners increasing the downforce and therefore the speed through a corner.

A meeting of FIA and team Technical Directors was recently held in London with the subject reportedly discussed at length and before Christmas, Whiting issued a new Technical Directive in response.

"It became clear during the season that some teams were designing the suspension and steering systems in an attempt to change the front ride height of the car," it read.

"Whilst some change is inevitable when the steering wheel is moved from lock-to-lock, we suspect that the effect of some systems was a far from an incidental change of ride height. We also believe that any non-incidental change of ride height is very likely to affect the aerodynamic performance of the car."

It is claimed the three top teams, Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull all had differing resolutions ranging from maintaining the status quo in the case of Red Bull, Ferrari calling for stricter regulation and Mercedes wanting a return to active suspension with hardware and software supplied by the FIA.

Issuing his final ruling, Whiting added: "Any change of front ride height when the steering wheel is moved from lock-to-lock should be wholly incidental. We believe that ride height should change by no more than five millimetres when the steering wheel is moved from lock-to-lock."

The Race Director also asked teams to provide all documentation referring to the impact the steering system had on the front ride height but Motorsport.com quoted one team as downplaying the importance of the decision.

"I suspect it can't be policed anyway, and teams will just ignore it," the unknown source claimed. "It is just the FIA's 'view,' it's not actually the 'law'. Nothing will change."

What is clear is the decision could have an impact on any team who has incorporated such a design into their 2018 chassis with the ruling coming just as teams prepare to crash test their new cars.

Triple world champion Niki Lauda has suggested Max Verstappen may have tricked Red Bull into giving him a higher salary as part of his new contract by falsely claiming Mercedes had sent him an offer.

In October, the Dutchman signed a new extension with the Milton Keynes outfit reportedly worth around $30m a year to keep him there until 2020, at the same time it ended speculation that perhaps the other top teams were watching the 20-year-old as he became frustrated by the lack of competitiveness.

The Austrian Formula 1 legend is currently the Non-Executive Chairman at the Brackley-based team and revealed that, contrary to the rumours, no such approach had been made to Verstappen about a future drive.

"We never made a proposal to Max," Lauda told Servus TV. "I have a good relationship with Helmut Marko as we often talk and fly together. Today we talked about Verstappen and I told him that they could have saved a lot of money since we never entered negotiations with him."

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Commenting on the three-time Grand Prix winner's new contract, the Red Bull advisor had no problem with the pay rise Verstappen received and instead highlighted the commitment he had shown to the team.

"We shared with him our plans for the future, guaranteeing that by 2020 we will have the best people and good options for the engine," Marko said. "We went to the Honda base in Sakura and the infrastructure is incredible. This convinced him.

"He took advantage of the situation to get a raise in his money, but on this matter, he is far from Vettel and Hamilton," he added. "If he can win titles he will approach them, but we have good prize money on top of a low base salary."