With a radical overhaul of Formula One's technical regulations coming next season, some teams like Honda Racing have decided that their main focus should be on getting the most from the 2009 machine.
However, for a team like Renault who are battling hard for position in this year's constructors' championship, the choice of where to put resources is not so easy.
Renault's director of engineering Pat Symonds told the team's official podcast: "It is always difficult and the level of difficulty depends on two major factors - one is where you are sitting in the current championship, how threatened you are and what you can achieve.
"If you are in a solid third place and unlikely to get second but unlikely to drop to fourth, more or less as we were last year, you can think about turning your attention to the following year. If you are fighting, like we are doing this year, then you have got to keep the development."
He added: "There is nothing wrong with keeping the development going if it is all applicable to next year's car, unfortunately this time there is very little that is applicable to next year's car. Next year's car is a very, very different animal, completely different aerodynamic rules, the KERS system, slick tyres - lot of things that will make it a very different car. So it is all the more important that we start early on it.
"And it makes it a very hard for us to do. We are a big team but we are not big enough to handle two major projects and some of the people who are maybe struggling this year, for example Honda, are pushing a lot more effort into next year than we have been able to. We may see a little bit of a shake-up of the establishment next year."
Although Renault currently lie seventh in the constructors' championship, Symonds has faith that development work first introduced at the Spanish Grand Prix will see them come good.
"We have gone from Australia where we had a car that was definitely not the car we wanted, nor the car we needed, to a car that is a great deal better," he said.
"All the things that were put in place to make the car better are still in place and still producing results, so in terms of performance I feel very confident.
"But I am a little bit more concerned by the fact we are not finishing races for various reasons and that is where we have to concentrate as well."
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