Toro Rosso started work on its 2017 car in September 2015, several months before the regulations were finalised earlier this year.

Significant regulation changes will see a new-look Formula One next year as the rule book permits a wider car with re-profiled wings and wider tyres. The regulations were agreed in February this year after several meetings among team bosses but were not finalised by the FIA until the end of April.

Nevertheless, Toro Rosso started work on the basic concepts of its 2017 car a couple of months before the 2015 season had finished.

"We tentatively started the 2017 project in September 2015, so it's been 14 months so far," technical director James Key said. "Back then, the chassis regulations hadn't been finalised but we thought that with any change of this nature, the sooner you start, the better.

"Basically, we had an outline set of regulations, which in the end underwent subtle changes before being finalised. It wasn't a massive change but in the end, the sport went with a slightly less aggressive set of regulations, which were agreed on around March-April time this year. That meant no one could steal a massive march on it because the regulations were still under review at that point.

"We knew the tyres would be wider and we had dimensions then of what we were going to work to. These also got refined, but not to a huge degree. We started work conceptually on this around September 2015, really just to see what it meant and then as the regs evolved, we changed our plans accordingly. By the time the car hits the track, it will have been a 17-month project."

Key said the 2017 regulations represent the biggest change to the rule book in his F1 career.

"Yes, it's a massive change. Honestly, from a bodywork and suspension and tyre point of view, this is the biggest one that I've personally experienced in almost 19 years in F1. From a chassis point of view, it's the biggest change of the past two decades, even bigger than 2009 and certainly bigger than 2014. These are exciting times!

"Basically, there are two processes going on. Firstly, you've got the enormous amount of research you have to do to try and understand what makes a car with these new regulations tick, without any experience of them in reality, because for a long time, we can only operate in the virtual world. That process comes to an end in January. Secondly you hit the track for winter testing, after which you go and do a season with all this work that for a long time existed in your virtual world."

Key said the team is currently manufacturing the first of its 2017-spec chassis, with the rest of the components to follow as the deadline of February testing nears.

"We are currently manufacturing the bigger parts of the 2017 car. The chassis are being made and they are on schedule. It's still early days. We're not up to quantities yet but the first one is well and truly underway. The second one is probably started at this stage. The gearbox is also underway as are other components, both those made in-house and those from outside suppliers. It's certainly going ahead full-on at the moment. We're doing R&D work on impact structures as well and that will be well in time for winter testing. From a development side, that's also flat-out, as normal.

"We've got a busy winter schedule ahead of us. With these new regs, we are paying particular attention to the loads on the car, which will be much higher because the cornering speeds will be that much faster. We therefore need to make sure that structurally, we've missed nothing. Of course, you always want to make sure that's the case, but we haven't got any experience of these cars yet so we need to double-check that we are as robust structurally as we believe we should be in theory. So there's a busy winter test programme. We are, in the meantime, sitting down and discussing many of the early season developments that we're planning. They've been underway for some time too and we're looking at all sorts of possibilities for early season development so it's all go."