From GMM
Amid the din of the new 'knee-gate' saga, another technical controversy involving McLaren's 2010 car has escaped the attention of the media.
The British team has been told by the FIA that the diffuser it is using this weekend in Bahrain may not be fitted to the MP4-25 in Melbourne in two weeks.
While the knee-activated air inlet system has been slammed by angry rivals and attracted widespread press coverage after clearance by the FIA, the car's Sakhir-spec double diffuser was less favourably looked upon by scrutineers.
Germany's Auto Motor und Sport said McLaren aerodynamically exploited the hole for the external engine starter, making it much bigger than necessary and thereby gaining another diffuser level.
After the enormous diffuser controversy of 2009, the saga has been kept quiet by McLaren simply agreeing to scrap the design after the chequered flag waves in Bahrain on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Ferrari's has been a conspicuously quiet voice in reaction to the controversy surrounding the rear wing design of the McLaren.
To the anger of some teams who believe the solution is illegal, the FIA this week showed a green light to the cars driven in Bahrain by Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton.
It is rumoured an official protest may soon be lodged, but when asked if Ferrari is working on its own air inlet system, Fernando Alonso resoundingly told Spain's El Mundo: "Yes."
Red Bull's Christian Horner has also indicated that copying the system is a more likely action than a protest, while Williams' engineering boss Patrick Head told the Guardian that the FIA ruling is simply "a bloody nuisance".
Horner added: "As the FIA have looked at it and deemed it to be ok, it's therefore a clever design as opposed to illegal design. So inevitably now there will be a wild goose chase with all the teams chasing that loophole."
Will they scrap the project too? To be followed!
Amid the din of the new 'knee-gate' saga, another technical controversy involving McLaren's 2010 car has escaped the attention of the media.
The British team has been told by the FIA that the diffuser it is using this weekend in Bahrain may not be fitted to the MP4-25 in Melbourne in two weeks.
While the knee-activated air inlet system has been slammed by angry rivals and attracted widespread press coverage after clearance by the FIA, the car's Sakhir-spec double diffuser was less favourably looked upon by scrutineers.
Germany's Auto Motor und Sport said McLaren aerodynamically exploited the hole for the external engine starter, making it much bigger than necessary and thereby gaining another diffuser level.
After the enormous diffuser controversy of 2009, the saga has been kept quiet by McLaren simply agreeing to scrap the design after the chequered flag waves in Bahrain on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Ferrari's has been a conspicuously quiet voice in reaction to the controversy surrounding the rear wing design of the McLaren.
To the anger of some teams who believe the solution is illegal, the FIA this week showed a green light to the cars driven in Bahrain by Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton.
It is rumoured an official protest may soon be lodged, but when asked if Ferrari is working on its own air inlet system, Fernando Alonso resoundingly told Spain's El Mundo: "Yes."
Red Bull's Christian Horner has also indicated that copying the system is a more likely action than a protest, while Williams' engineering boss Patrick Head told the Guardian that the FIA ruling is simply "a bloody nuisance".
Horner added: "As the FIA have looked at it and deemed it to be ok, it's therefore a clever design as opposed to illegal design. So inevitably now there will be a wild goose chase with all the teams chasing that loophole."
Will they scrap the project too? To be followed!