The flip flop bug has hit the FIA, which has now made a U-turn on its decision to ban blown diffusers in Formula 1. This means that the off-throttle blown diffuser is now legal again, after all parties unanimously agreed that the ban should be rescinded.
The issue reached boiling point at the British GP, where concessions (first to Mercedes engines) and counter concessions (Renault engines) caused anger in the paddock. FIA then realised what they’ve gotten themselves into, and rolled back the whole thing “to be fair”. Sounds avoidable if there was proper consultation. Here’s the official explanation:
“The matter was still being discussed because one engine manufacturer (Renault Sport) was reluctant to run with the settings we had imposed and continued to try and convince us that they would require alternative settings in order to maintain their perfect reliability record. At the last minute additional information was provided to us which we felt would be hard to refuse having already made a small concession to another manufacturer (Mercedes Benz).
“However, further discussions on Friday evening and Saturday morning resulted in us deciding that we had conceded too much and, to be fair to the manufacturers who had presented cars in what we considered the correct configuration, we should revert to the specification we had specified in our note to the teams on 20 June. This is how all teams then ran on Saturday and Sunday in Silverstone,” FIA said.
This would not be an issue next season, as teams have agreed to a new exhaust tailpipe position that exits the bodywork much higher up, and no longer in the vicinity of the diffuser. Any aerodynamic benefit will be kept to an absolute minimum as a result.
However, I have a feeling that some clever team will find a loophole and derive some benefit out of the new layout. The others will protest, and we go back to square one :)
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hahaa.. FIA (F1-related) ppl are bunch of clowns… ban this, allow that, ban that, allow this…
so much loopholes in technical rules… this is ridiculous…
whats wrong with the FIA??..
but i think they should back to 2004 regulation~ =D
yeah, unlimited fund, no restrictions on budget whatsoever, and we’ll see top teams will dominate the podium more often. less rich team can just fill in the bottom order..
This time change diffuser, next time change to add wind screen to protect those driver from the rain.
FIA learning from Pak Lah. :-)
time to CLEAN FIA for their action. it is annoying to fans.
Big joke in racing history….no wonder I’m fast losing interest in F1.
FIA Malaysianised boss, Mr Todt, got the flip-flop disease from our politicians :)
First, team orders are banned and then allowed again. Now it’s the whole ‘blown diffuser’ thing that gets into the new controversy. Because Red Bull and Lotus-Renault knows that if this ban is enforced their performance will suffer badly, they are strongly against it.
FIA just show all the F1 teams they are bunch of hopeless people. make some noise and they let you go off…
These FIA blokes with their undecided fickle mindedness fiasco is truly appalling to say the least.Make up your mind la dey..you are not dealing with a pair of sneakers here..
It’s like chipsmore,now you see it,then you certainly don’t..this is why i have lost interest in F1 over the the years..now it’s more of drama show more than actual racing..still miss the Niki Lauda,Prost,Schumi,Hakinnen and Senna days..DTM,BTCC,Porsche Cup and Le Mans is far more entertaining and is more in your face kind of racing..no disrespect to this form of motorsport or the pro drivers that race the cars..seriously it’s like a joke with the decisions and the rules they have been coming out of late..
Cheers.