Ferrari seek clarification on Mclaren Wing

[Daniel]

I see his point though Dave. It does conform to the letter of the law but it's clearly not within the spirit of the rules.

[Dave B]

So? Once the green light goes on there is no "spirit", only a black and white rulebook.

[Daniel]

Hmmmmm. I think we shouldn't be throwing this in and costing all the teams countless milions of pounds or euros to do this on their car. As has been said, the rules in black and white can't be exhaustive and that's why we can put new rules in.

[Daniel]

I was on my phone before so long posts are tedious. Here's how I see it.

Back in the 90's you had 2 WRC teams who had "cheats" when it came to getting more air into the engine. Basically the rule in the rulebook said "All air that goes into the engine MUST go through the restrictor"

You had the famous TTE moving restrictor which allowed air into the turbo which hadn't gone through the restrictor. Definite and obvious although difficult to find cheat. They got banned.

Ford had a system on the Escort which involved a bottle which held compressed air. So what happened was that the turbo compressed the air and on pretty much anything but part throttle, the engine was sucking in more air with the turbo than it was actually burning so when the driver did put their foot flat they could have an extra boost from the stored air in the tank. It conformed to the letter of the rules as no air went into the engine that hadn't gone through the restrictor. The FIA still banned it and quite rightfully so.

[leopard]

Assuming that being faster in speed trap is purely results of that wings innovation, teams may assert protests, imo.

What springs to mind if FIA considers it legal, while this innovation is great beneficial for McLaren, and entices more teams to do the same thing, would McLaren claim it their intellectual property that none can copy it from them, except the fact that teams cannot cut holes in the safety cell once the season has started.

[Daniel]

I must admit I applauded the double diffuser advantage last season even though it didn't suit my favourite driver/team, because its nice to see teams being innovative in a sport which has been so heavily curbed with rules.

From what I have seen Mclaren do not have a huge advantage with this feature, and all teams on the grid would not think twice if they had this on their car. Its a competitive sport and everyone wants to win, which doesn't make it surprising when people like Bob Bell get upset when they fail to take an advantage. I know Mclaren along with others complained about the DD last year, and now the boot is on the other foot in this instance. Everyone will complain until it is them with that edge over the others.

In an ideal world I'd agree with you henners. I'd love F1 to be all out war, 2 or more tyre brands, less restrictive tyre regs, aero regs etc etc. But that's not possible at the moment. The fact that the FIA will probably either ban this within a few races or make it illegal from next year onwards really says it all about this. It's clever and I aplaud them for this, but it's also not in the spirit of the regs.

[leopard]

Yeah, teams have to take into account all variables, especially the engine, with or without it McLaren runs cars with high reliability.

[Dave B]

It's clever and I aplaud them for this, but it's also not in the spirit of the regs.

I'm sorry to keep disagreeing with you, but there is no "spirit" in the rules. This is a global multi-billion dollar sport / business, not a gentlemans' club race. Teams and drivers will always push the envelope, always have, always will. The rules prescribe a line which you must not cross, and so long as you're just inside those rules you're legal.

Ferrari's wheels may or may not be in the spirit of the rules outlawing hubcaps, but the FIA says they're legal so they stay. It's the same with McLaren's wing, just as it was last year with double diffusers.

Teams can either get bitter and jealous that they weren't as clever, and waste time and energy protesting; or they can knuckle down and work on their own shortcomings.

[ArrowsFA1]

It's clever and I aplaud them for this, but it's also not in the spirit of the regs.

But isn't a spec car the only way to ensure teams adhere to the letter and spirit of the rules?

We are always told that one of the main attractions of the sport is the technology and innovations that the teams come up with year after year. Those come from their different interpretations of the rules governing the design of the cars, and those rules have become more and more restrictive over the years. The "spirit" of the rules is pretty much the only area where the teams have room for manoeuvre, and it's the one area which isn't defined anywhere in the rulebook.

In this case, as with the DD, the interpretation of the rules has been declared legal. The only way for it to be made illegal is for something to be written into the rules and that may well happen for 2011.

Renault may complain about "another arms race" costing other teams money, but that's the way F1 works and always has done. If we don't want it to be like this then I'd suggest a spec-car is the way to go.

[F1boat]

I tired by the constant whining by Renault and Red Bull, honestly. Hopefully, like last year, they will fail.