Formula One is set for a day of crucial negotiations over the future direction of the sport on Tuesday.
F1 bosses are meeting in Geneva to discuss -- and hopefully agree on -- plans for the regulations from 2017 onwards. The main aim is to make the sport more appealing to fans, but opinions on exactly how to do that are split.
At the centre of the negotiations will be plans to make the cars faster and more extreme, but deciding by how much is set to be the main point of contention. Discussions over the weekend format, new cockpit safety measures and engine regulations are also among items on the agenda.
Red Bull made clear on Monday that it is in favour of a big shakeup of the aerodynamic regulations to achieve the original plan of making cars around five second per lap faster, and team boss Christian Horner was preparing for a heated debate.
"I think it'll be an interesting day," he said. "We've got the Strategy Group meeting in the morning, which is usually a good old argument, and then we've got the F1 Commission meeting in the afternoon, where hopefully something will get agreed.
"It's a wonderful opportunity for F1 to address the rules for 2017, and I think it will be a great shame for that opportunity to be missed by not, excuse the pun, grabbing the bull by the horns. If it gets delayed, I think it will be disappointing for the fans and for everyone. I think there's a real opportunity with a relatively clean sheet of paper to do something really good and address the fundamentals that we really set out almost 12 months ago; to make the cars more exciting, harder to drive, to see a bigger differential between the drivers' skill, for them to be more aggressive and absolutely to see driver and machine at the limit.
"The thing that concerns me is that each team has a vested interest and sometimes when that happens things get diluted and we need to hopefully see strong governance and leadership, and the commercial rights holder and the governing body aligned tomorrow in what they want F1 to be moving forward."
Mercedes has raised concerns over whether Pirelli can develop tyres capable of dealing with the increased cornering speeds as well as the impact increased downforce will have on overtaking.
"When you look at the loads that would be triggered by these aero changes, they have never existed," Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff explained. "We would be excited about that if we were to achieve the car and tyres while still keeping the excitement in the sport and the overtaking capability. If so then let's go with that, but at the moment that just doesn't fit.
"What we would like to achieve is a set of regulations that make the cars look aggressive, wider, bigger, more downforce, faster, but still within a feasible framework. Not just putting it on the car with the view that if the tyre manufacturer can't cope then we need to change the tyre manufacturer. I don't think this is the way that we want to tackle it."
Horner plans to counter that argument with a promise from Pirelli's chairman that it will develop tyres to match whatever aerodynamic loads F1 sets out to achieve.
"We had a very productive meeting with Pirelli several weeks ago where several teams and drivers went to Milan and Pirelli's HQ and met with Marco Tronchetti Provera to go through any concerns," Horner explained. "It was made very, very clear to us at that meeting: 'Come up with the regulations and we'll make whatever tyres you want to suit those regulations.'
"I think it's wrong to use Pirelli as a scapegoat to compromise regulations. I think F1 has to come up with a car that it feels it wants and it needs, and I'm sure that Pirelli can make the necessary product, as their chairman stated."
McLaren racing director Eric Boullier said an agreement was already in place among Formula One's technical working groups, but needs to be agreed among the more politically-motivated F1 team bosses.
"Everybody has their own opinions. We are very much in favour of making [the cars] more exciting and faster. The drivers obviously would be happy to have a faster car - or let's say a car more difficult to drive - so there have been discussions now for six months to try and make the cars faster and a little bit of a different shape to the car. I understand in different working groups they have agreed now so it is up to the top people in Formula One to decide what they want to do."
"I don't know if we will get to an agreement, but if we don't then we will have some issues because the deadline for a decision switching from a majority to unanimity is March 1, so it's the last chance tomorrow to make sure we agree."