newey says diffuser ban to hit red bull 2nd hardest

Red Bull's technical chief Adrian Newey believes his team will be affected "quite heavily" by the ban on off-throttle diffusers that comes into effect from this weekend's British Grand Prix.

"I think we will be quite heavily affected because our car was designed around the exhaust in as much as it was part of the design right from the outset," Newey told news agency Reuters.

"Probably with the exception of Renault and ourselves everybody else has generally speaking copied someone else's principal, mainly ours, and adapted to the car that they had pre-season.

"So it might therefore be, because our car has been designed around it, it's going to be more of a hit for us but it's very difficult to forecast."

Newey also admitted he was mystified as to why the FIA has decided to ban something that had been legal up until now.

"I'm slightly baffled by it because it's been declared legal forever until this race," he added.

"The obvious parallel is when active suspension was banned at the end of '93, where there was no regulation change. Ferrari couldn't get their active to work and suddenly it was illegal for the next year.

"It's easy to fall into the Machiavellian conspiracy theories. Whether that's true or not, I don't know and I can't comment. My read of it would be that, of our main competitors, which are clearly McLaren and Ferrari, then Ferrari probably haven't got their exhaust to work that well so they are quite happy to see the back of it.

"McLaren probably don't know whether they are going to lose more or less than us. But probably on the basis that they could probably do with a wild card thrown into the pack, they are probably relieved to have something that is different," he added.

to me if someone other then vettel goes on to win the title it's a false title that the fia have created but it'll be nice to see an actual competitive race for once hopefully.

source: autosport

Truth be told, I think Newey is sand bagging. Also Vettels 2 titles (he's won this one already) are false because of the flexi wings and other illegal paraphernalia on that car

Until we see how the next few races pan out, its all just speculation really.

It makes sense that Red Bull and Renault will be hardest hit as they pioneered off-throttle diffuser blowing. According to Martin Whitmarsh McLaren got their version to work quite well and they're also expected to take a hit in performance.

@Belgarion:
if you go down that road, you can equally say Button's title is false because of the Brawn's double diffuser. Like it or not, Red Bull made an interpretation of the regulations that no-one else did and evidently found some kind of loophole, which caused the FIA to deem their front wing legal.

You do have to question their consistency though. Why ban exhaust-blowing of the diffusers, yet allow front wings which appear to flex under heavy dynamic loading? Has the FIA issued any clarification on this issue and if not, why not?

Mate, I also consider Button's title as a false one as well, just like Alonso's Mass Damper wins as well.

Thats rather churlish, really, considering F1 has always been as much about technology as actual racing.

On your term, you'd have to consider Senna's 1988 title false, as the McLarens were the only cars to run with turbocharged engines that year.

Or Prost's 1993 title, given he drove the FW15, which had active suspension, ABS, traction control and a bunch of other gadgetry that few other cars of the time had (given that electronic driver aids were banned the following season).

The way F1 works, one team or another nearly always has an advantage over their rivals, whether in terms of horsepower, aero efficiency or some clever innovation.

Bonjourno!

I believe that the 'Mass Damper' titles as people so call them, were victories for the sport of Formula One as the great 'Senior Diaz' beat the unbeatable foe of the Red Baron and his Ferrari! Even when the mass dampers were deemed illegal, Senior Diaz was still able to take the WDC... for a second time!

The WDC is the Fingers to loose now. When the Finger sees this lead being eaten up by Senior Diaz and realises he has to win in an average at best car with no blown diffuser, we will see arguably the greatest choke made by a driver since 2007 as Senior Diaz makes history with the greatest come back of all time!

Forza Alonso!

dyrewolfe wrote:Thats rather churlish, really, considering F1 has always been as much about technology as actual racing.

On your term, you'd have to consider Senna's 1988 title false, as the McLarens were the only cars to run with turbocharged engines that year.

Or Prost's 1993 title, given he drove the FW15, which had active suspension, ABS, traction control and a bunch of other gadgetry that few other cars of the time had (given that electronic driver aids were banned the following season).

The way F1 works, one team or another nearly always has an advantage over their rivals, whether in terms of horsepower, aero efficiency or some clever innovation.

Maybe it is but the way I see it. Would Button and Vettel be world champions if the playing field was even? Alonso would, Senna and Prost would as well but without a massive performance advantage, I do not believe Button and Vettel would be world champions so there will always be a question mark about their title wins as far as I'm concerned.

Webber was brilliant in the Red Bull whenever they weren't running the off-throttle blown diffuser. Hopefully this works to his advantage.

@Belgarion: no such thing as a level playing field in F1, so there's no point complaining about it.

If you want to see drivers competing in identical cars, to see who's the best, you'll have to watch a different series.

F1 is about finding the best combination of man and machine. Thats why there is no truly unequivocal answer as to who the best driver in F1 is: you have to consider the car(s) they drove and how they compared to their competitors' cars.

@ dryewolfe: I know mate, still have my doubts about Button and Vettel though