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F1: Martin Whitmarsh talks about the McLaren rear wing

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Khatir Soltani
From GMM

After McLaren's 2010 car was declared legal by the FIA, Martin Whitmarsh speeks about the innovation.

"From what I understand, there are no grounds for a protest. I don't think everyone yet understands the nature of the systems that are on our car. So if they put a protest in, it would potentially be on a wrong set of assumptions as to what we've got. We will see," said McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh to the Telegraph.

Martin Whitmarsh, who is also chairman of the F1 teams' association FOTA, cheekily suggested that rival teams might copy the inlet on the upper left surface of the monocoque for the purposes of "cooling their drivers".

He said the unnamed engineer responsible for the idea will be outed within time. "Secrets in F1 have a remarkably short shelf-life and we will make sure that, in due course, the individual gets quite a lot of credit," said Martin Whitmarsh.

It is believed direct copies of the McLaren system, with airflow into a cockpit inlet controlled to the rear wing by the movement of the driver, are unlikely for two reasons.

Firstly, the 2010 monocoques are homologated, making significant alterations difficult, and it is believed that rival teams do not yet fully understand McLaren's ingenious solution.

But Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said: "It looks like it's legal so we will look at developing our own version. Engineers are creative people. I'm sure ours will find another way of doing it."


Khatir Soltani
Khatir Soltani
Automotive expert
  • Over 8 years experience as a car reviewer
  • Over 50 test drives in the last year
  • Involved in discussions with virtually every auto manufacturer in Canada