Thread: china f1 gp
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Old 17-04-2009
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BagofSkill BagofSkill is offline
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What Fabs says is right. Renault and McLarren will be on thier Mk3 diffusers by the time most other teams fit their own first crack at the double deck. (dinfinitions: Mk1 is standard, Mk2 is the first double deck, etc).

Yes the first itteration form Renault is tame, it's 1.5 deck diffuser. The reason is thatthe change required is so comrehensive that it's going to take time and R&D and money (around $10M) to progress down the development path. The first Renault update requires a new floor, a new engine cover/upper body, new lower rear wing, new exhaust, and new engine ancillaries. And you'll need to replace most or all of these things for every update you do! Red Bull at least will also need a new gearbox and rear suspension, which is why they won't have an option until June.

The reason Renault and McLaren have developed these things so soon is because they recognised very early that the appeal process was a formality and was never going to be passed by the FIA. It was obvious from the first day before Melbourne when Max Mosely said he didn't see a problem.

The thing that's upset the 'other' teams is the fact that Renault and Red Bull at least have confirmed that they asked the FIA if they could use the loophole and they were told 'No'. But the others were told 'Yes' for the same thing.
Additionally people aren't understanding the real issue.
There is an exclusion zone saying that no aerodynamic part of (including the floor) can be in a certain 'box', only a crash structure, which is the pod the rain lights are mounted on. The double diffuser cars have aerodynamic bodywork in this box. They say it's not part of the floor because what they've done is separate the double deck from the floor by LITERALLY a gap THINNER of a sheet of paper. The rules allow holes, the purpose of which is to affix a bolt so you can hold the floor on, the diffuser three have converted the 'hole' to a 'slot', said it's the same thing and the FIA have agreed with them.
Some people are arguing that it's just a clever interpritation of the rules but it's not because it's a blatant cheat against the intention and the working of the rules. The FIA are only letting it fly because they are loving the impression that they've 'fixed' the sport by shuffling the order and now you see teams that haven ever, or haven't recently been anything like competitive (Brawn/Honda, Toyota and Williams) up the front, and more than that they'r etelling people that now it's possible for a privateer team with no money to win, even though that couldn't be further from the truth.
Moreover the see that the other bigger teams will eventually catch up, so it's going to be a great season.
We'll see what the FIA's reasoning behind the diffuser isssue is when they eventualy concoct and publish thier verdict summary. But you can but it won't acknowledge the fact that the FIA's own officers either deliberatly mislead some teams, or acted negligently. Thus skewing the championship (yet again) and costing the paddock an many tens of millions of dollars extra when we're all trying to same money.
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