With testing of its 2017 tyres set to resume following the Italian Grand Prix, when Ferrari will be in action at Barcelona and Mercedes as Paul Ricard, preparations for next season, certainly as far as tyres are concerned, are already well underway.

Pirelli motorsport boss, Paul Hembery, believes that the new wider tyres, in tandem with the new aero rules are going to give the sport a much-needed boost as drivers, with the aid of increased grip, will be pushing ever harder.

"If you are cornering with that much grip, and if it's to be believed up to five or six seconds a lap quicker, that clearly is going to be felt by the drivers in a dramatic fashion," he told Autosport.

"It could be driving on rails at that point," he admitted. "It could be so high, the feeling is the car has such grip, that it's more driving on rails rather than driving on the limit.

"We won't know until they get to the limits on track to understand where those limits actually are," he admitted. "But with that improvement in performance it's like going into another category of racing.

"It will be like jumping from GP2 into F1, so it'll be almost like a Formula 1-plus compared to where we are now."

Asked if it might take time for some drivers to adapt to 'F1+', he admitted: It's going to take a while anyway, but I'm sure they will have been driving in the simulator before they get in the car for the first time, so they will already have an idea of what the real impact is going to be.

"Sometimes something like this can bring out differences in drivers. I'm sure the top guys will say it is what they want, that they want to be challenged more."