The push for wider tyres could be a sign of more power or it could just be gamesmanship that we see so often in F1 - hard to tell,
however paddock rumours can often be true.
How many times though have we seen confident, sometimes even smug, teams at the start of a season, only for them to end up low or even out of the points at the first race.
I seem to remember Ilmor, the original driving force behind the Merc engine workshops in Britain, were pretty successful in the 90s turbo power era of Indycar/Cart. Renault and Ferrari on the other hand have not, as far as I know, run turbos in serious topline track competion since F1 last had turbos.
Maybe there is a similar knowledge gap in the engine field to rival the Red Bull aero advantage from Newey?