The shield cockpit protection device is unlikely to be introduced in time for the 2018 season, according to Red Bull's chief engineer Paul Monaghan.
The FIA announced prior to this year's Russian Grand Prix that the Halo protection device would not be implemented. Instead, a new design featuring a see-through screen was proposed and is scheduled to be track-tested ahead of a possible introduction for the start of next season.
Monaghan believes it will be "very tight" for the device to be implemented in time for 2018 as there is still a lot of work to do in terms of development and ensuring it is right for the sport.
"We are going to very, very tight to get this onto a car for '18," Monaghan said in Thursday's FIA press conference. "I think the research into its functionality and protection, it's got to happen almost in parallel with the installation, which makes it quite a tricky job. Because whatever they change in terms of screen then has an implication to a chassis and if you have cut your patterns then you are in a fairly awkward situations.
"I think if it all happens in parallel then the cut-offs are going to be somewhat team dependent. There is a hell of a lot to get through to ensure that this is a thoroughly developed and sorted package to put on next year's car."
Force India's technical director Andy Green admits there is still a lot of question marks over the device and confirmed it would be discussed in a meeting today with the other teams.
"We've seen some preliminary models," he said. "We've been looking at how we integrate those into the chassis next year. There are a lot, a lot of question marks over it. There's a lot of work to do in the timeframe that we have been given. So we need to make some smart decisions going forward. Hopefully we'll be discussing that tomorrow, with a view to how we answer all those questions in the time period we've got."