I think 2014 may see some major "shuffling of the deck" if you will, as the changes are enough to wipe much of the slate clean and force teams to redesign many things. For example I wasn't aware of the exhaust restrictions Wedge clarified. Even for the best of the best, such a change is a major factor in how the overall car design takes place. The new engines will not only change the center of gravity but the new powerbands created by those engines might for instance produce a difference in how much straight line traction is needed to get out of a corner quickly.

Even the best designers have limits to what they can do, and even at the level of F1 the "lesser" designers and engineers have a lot of experience and knowledge in hand. In a sport where fractions of a second per lap can result in either horrid results or consistent top of the pack results, I think it's inevitable that the field will likely spread out some.