The FIA has defended its plans for the 2017 regulations, which are aimed at making the sport more dramatic but have come under criticism in recent weeks.

The basis of the 2017 regulations was agreed in February with the aim of making the cars up to five seconds faster, but the details are not due to be decided until April 30. Since the February agreement, opposition to the changes has grown, with world champion Lewis Hamilton among the most vocal about the direction the sport is taking.

However, FIA president Jean Todt said the new regulations are about making Formula One a better spectacle overall and is confident the proposal being put forward by FIA technical delegate Charlie Whiting will work

"I heard quite a lot recently about the 2017 regulations by saying it's not going in the right direction," Todt said. "Charlie has been debating a lot about that.

"The mandate [for the new regulations] was how to make Formula One show that it is the pinnacle of motorsport," he said. "How to make cars quicker, more spectacular and facilitate overtaking while remaining in some decent budget. I think that's the mandate. So proposals came out and here Charlie can be more detailed about them. He has been discussing them again with driver about it."

One of the main concerns about the new regulations is that the increase in aerodynamic downforce will have a negative impact on the chances of overtaking. However, Whiting is confident that by matching the aerodynamic improvements with more mechanical grip from the tyres, the sport will remain exciting.

"We've had countless meetings with technical directors of every team," Whiting said. "We've had a whole range of proposals from what appears to be a huge amount of downforce to a very low level of downforce but it's all based on the premise that we will have a significant increase in mechanical grip. So what we've ended up with is inevitably somewhere in the middle and I think it's incorrect to say that the anticipated lap time improvement will all come from downforce because it simply shouldn't be.

"The whole idea is that at least half of that will come from mechanical grip and the other half from aerodynamic downforce. One of the things that we've been talking about all along is about the fact that we mustn't make it more difficult to follow another car. That's always been one of the underlying principles.

"So we've done, I believe, the best we can given that we have to take everybody's views in to account. It's not easy sometimes to keep everybody happy, especially when you've got huge teams with massive resources. We have to rely on their simulations and that's what we've actually come up with. I believe we've trod the middle ground and we've come up with a solution which gained the most support among the teams."

Much of the pressure now appears to be on Pirelli to produce tyres capable of offering the increase in mechanical grip that will be required, especially in a limited timeframe ahead of 2017. But Whiting is confident Pirelli is up to the job and is close to agreeing a contract with F1's tyre supplier that will outline the performance targets for the 2017 tyres and the amount of testing in order to achieve it.

"We've discussed it at length with Pirelli and we had a meeting in Milan with Pirelli in the beginning of February. We were asked to provide them with the targets that we think Pirelli should achieve during the course of the new contract. We are on the verge now, we've discussed it with the teams, we are literally ready to provide Pirelli with a set of targets that we feel they need to achieve during the course of their renewed contract.

"So it's all ongoing stuff, but we've taken input from all the drivers - drivers were actually present at the meeting we had at Pirelli in Milan in February - seven drivers present at that meeting. So the targets that we're trying to set Pirelli are degradation, if you've got five different types of tyre for example we need to have different degradation for different types of tyre and we need the degradation to overlap so there's more than one strategy that will be quick during a race. Ideally we would like two or three strategies to end up with the same race time. That's the sort of thing that we're trying to achieve."

Specifically targeting overtaking, the FIA is keen for Pirelli to focus on the front tyres to counter the problems drivers face when travelling in the wake of another car.

"Following other cars is the issue and I think we are all aware it has never been easy to follow another car, but what the drivers tell us is that it has become more difficult because on certain tyres and on certain circuits, you lose a little bit of front end grip when you get close to another car and then the tyres don't come back. That's what is affecting them most and that's what the drivers explained to Pirelli when they joined us for the meeting in Milan. That is one of the targets that we will set Pirelli. As long as the effect on the aero is not made any worse and the correction is made to the tyres, I believe we will be in good shape."