We officially have the once-championship-team-but-now-backrunners McLaren and the current front-runners-by-a-huge-margin having a go at each other. Just in case F1 news needed a bit of spicing up.

McLaren’s Eric Boullier has accused Mercedes of trying to protect the massive performance advantage performance they have over the rest of the field by bringing up safety concerns over the proposed changes to the regulations before the 2017 Formula One season.

Of course, on the Mercedes side, they would say that McLaren are just desperate to catch up but at the moment it is Boullier calling Wolff desperate.

Radical rule changes are on the cards at the end of the 2016 that are set to see the cars between 5 and 6 seconds faster per lap. In order to acheive that, cars would need to be wider, as would their wings and tyres and the aero rules would also need some revamping.

Toto Wolff however is expressing concerns around the tyres saying that he’s not sure that they would cope under the increased downforce, particularly through corners.

Boullier of course completely disagrees and claims that Wolff is desperate to protect the Mercedes team’s advantage by ensuring that fewer changes take place.

“Not really,” Boullier replied when asked if he shared Wolff’s sentiment.

“I guess it is the usual game where you want to stop some changes – you just argue and go after the safety worries. But it is pretty desperate for Mercedes.”

The FIA has asked the teams and Pirelli to simulate the new rules in order to ascertain whether the new rules would in fact pose safety concerns.