2017 tyre tests give top teams ’huge advantage’

F1’s top three teams are getting a "huge advantage" by helping Pirelli test the bigger tyres for 2017.

While Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull put up their hands to modify 2015 cars for the higher downforce of next year, McLaren-Honda decided against taking part in the Pirelli testing.

"We believe it was better not to get distracted," said team boss Eric Boullier.

But Andy Green, the technical boss at Force India, thinks the three big teams are getting a big head start by doing Pirelli’s on-track work.

"The three teams that have built test cars for Pirelli are getting a huge advantage," he told Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

"All the others will only get their first experience early next year of what Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull are getting now," Green added.

However, Pirelli has promised that data from the current 2017 tyre testing is being given to all of the teams.

Green countered: "We’ll get some of the data. But the teams also generate their own data, which has nothing to do with the tyres. For example, on the aerodynamics.

"If we had the $2 million (to build a test car), we would have done it," he said. "We thought about it but in the time frame it was simply not possible to do at the same time as our race programme."