Diffusers Legal!!

Good point. Let's hope there aren't any rules changes for a while....

 

Ross Brawn says he has no hard feelings about the decision by rival teams to protest the legality of his team's car this season.

In a statement issued shortly after the FIAs International Court of Appeal rejected complaints by Ferrari, Red Bull Racing and Renault that the diffusers on the Brawn GP, Williams and Toyota cars were illegal, Brawn said he was obviously delighted with the news.

And although Renault and Ferrari figures have criticised him personally over the matter, Brawn has said he respected the right of his rivals to challenge the legality of his car if they felt it was wrong.

"We are pleased with the decision reached by the International Court of Appeal today," said Brawn. "We respect the right of our competitors to query any design or concept used on our cars through the channels available to them.

"The FIA Technical Department, the Stewards at the Australian and Malaysian Grands Prix and now five judges at the International Court of Appeal have confirmed our belief that our cars have always strictly complied with the 2009 Technical Regulations.

"The decision of the International Court of Appeal brings this matter to its conclusion and we look forward to continuing on the track the challenge of what has been a very exciting start to the 2009 FIA Formula One World Championship."

The FIAs decision means that Jenson Button's victories in the first two grands prix are now beyond doubt, with the team expected to maintain the advantage it has shown so far this season in this weekend's Chinese Grand Prix.

 

Not a surprise. Ross is a clever man.

However, while i'm happy that Toyota, Williams and Brawn can genuinely challenge for wins, i also hope it won't destroy the 'close racing' that was supposed to happen this season. The last thing i want is a snorefest GP. The last 2 was really promising and entertaining.

 

Yes, you will see Ferrari win a race this year, actually, more than one, and likely Massa will be the one to accomplish this. He seems to adapt more than Raikkonen to situations like this.

Commanding leads are meant to be reduced, and I think Ferrari will return with vengence when the European races begin. Maybe not enough to win the WCC, or the WDC, but enough for this to continue to be the best F1 season in 25-30 years. The diffusers are not the only reason the Brawns are winning, it takes a complete COMPLIMENTARY package of suspension, tires, engine, transmission, and aeros to accomplish this.

Unless the team does something stupid, I would not be surprised if Massa or Raikkonen made podium this weekend in China.

 

Interesting decision! But I think Brawn would have won without the diffusors, too. They just have the best package.

However, I'd love to know how they managed to convince the "jury" of their "the holes are not holes but slots" argument!

 

So then Pete, can I safely assume you think the FIA have F-up.

Either way it is not a good way to run the sport, but at least this way is more favourable, it's not nice having the FIA dictate the winners and losers is it..

RB did in fact try to simplify the grey area rules, but no one would listen, so IMO its good for him and I hope he is allowed to stick it to them...A clever and shrewd guy.

 

Keep in mind that Ross Brawn pointed out the loopholes in the rules to ALL the other teams one year ago, and offered to come up with the language to correct this "deficit". Yet all the other teams, including Ferrari, rejected his proposal.

Ross Brawn deserved this ruling, the other teams including Ferrari need to stop using the "spirit of the rules" BS as their excuse for being stupid. When Brawn showed up for preseason testing with a diffuser chassis/body, if Ferrari was smart, they would have started their redesign at that point.

Ferrari's results this year will be their own doing. Blaming the FIA is not correct.

 

I believe they're actually termed "gaps", not holes, between the two reference planes - They haven't put "holes" or "slots" in the diffuser(s), but rather have a gap between the two...... Good for them! Particularly, as Steve noted, Ross offered to clean up the wording way back when.

Go Rubens!

Cheers,
Ian

 

Yes, a good all round package of a car agreed.

The Ferrari lawyer getting personal sealed the deal RB way..IMO.

Besides it would make the FIA look even more ridiclous than they are, undermining themselves.

 

IIRC, the rules state that no holes in the floor are allowed if you can't see the sky through them looking up from under the car. The gaps or slots of the double diffusors are obviously holes in the floor, and above the second diffusor they are covered by the rest of the car. But then again I have never seen the actual designs in person, nor am I a lawyer - the latter being more important for me not understanding the decision, I guess

 

We can argue all we want about this, but the courts have ruled and the case is closed. Time for the debate to end and the racing to continue. I bet you a whole heap of $$$s that the field closes up as soon as they land in Europe. No teams are just going to stand still and wave their white flags. There are 15 races still to go, so the season has only just begun. This year isn't over - it's only just beginning...

 

I *thought* (but have been wrong before!) the rule was the opposite - They're illegal if you *can* see the sky from the underside - This is possibly at least part of the reason we no longer have "shark gill" cooling slots(?)

But I'm certainly not sure..... However, hopefully now they've been deemed OK we'll get some more detailed pictures etc - No need for the Toyota guys to "hide" their rear ends on the grid!

Cheers,
Ian

 

Would someone please clarify the test ban for me?
As I understood it no track testing was allowed after the season started with the exception of race weekends (meaning in effect Friday). In the last couple of days I've read references to tests by Ferrari driver Marc Gene on the Variano Straight happening this week.
Is this some kind of loop hole or are we looking at a potentially "protestable" situation?

 

I agree with the first part of your post Steve, but I'm not so sure about the last part. According to his words RB did try to simplify the rules but he also stated that he made his point in such a way that his clever idea was not revealed. This could have mislead the other teams.

Anyway, the result is that the majority of the teams will have to spend a lot more money this year to try and catch up and the cars will still be faster and overtaking may be affected in the wrong way as well. So the goals of the rule changes are compromised.

 

No, they don't have to get any minimum time to catch up. Honda gave up on developing '08's car in order to start on the '09 car. They gave up on the '08 to do so. Ross Brawn also offered to clarify the rules for everyone else, they rejected him. Now all the teams are giving Brawn ****, but you don't hear them talking smack about the other team principals.

I guess for some, Ferrari/McCheats are the only ones allowed to have a superior car/design.

I don't know why people say we don't have close racing this year, when that's exactly what we've been having. Maybe it's not necessarily for the lead, but there has been plenty of passing/close action in the midfield.

 

Auto Motor & Sport, issue 9/2009, says on page 150: "No part of the body may be seen through them from under the car", ".. the transition between the reference plane and the floor may be missing if from the edge of the reference plane only the sky is visible or body parts above are hidden by suspension parts". So if you look through the hole and you see the diffusor, the holes are illegal if I understand that part correctly (which obviously isn't the case, if the FIA ruling was right today)

 

If you build a better mousetrap . . .

 

and everyone else will try to have it banned

 

Even if the Brawn is dominant I wouldn't mind watching an interteam rivalry between Button and Rubens. The title fights between Prost and Senna (not saying Button and Rubens are any Prost or Senna) were great to watch even though they were both in the McLaren. Don't forget in 88 the McLaren won all but one race. Still it was a great season of racing between Prost and Senna.

Let’s face it this is probably the last great chance either Button or Rubens has to win a WDC. I’d love to see either of them do it and I’m sure neither one of them is going to just layover for the other.

 

but the problem lies with the creation of the rule. The rules were created to allow more passing. This new diffuser, and don't be suprised to see quad-deck diffusers soon, will not allow close racing like we've seen. Instead when a car gets in the wake of another car in the car following will lose the downforce on the back of the car. This is because the there won't be as much air flowing under the car for the new "slots" to pick up.

 

I know everyone is saying that this could lead to one/ two team races this season, but wasnt this much the same case last season with predominantly Ferrari and Mclaren challenging for the win in most of the GP's?

 

Excellent point.

 

And it's pretty much always been that way - The players come and go, but there's generally no more than 2-3 teams with a serious, realistic chance of winning - Unless it rains and/or the SC gets involved etc - Then it's a roll of the dice, as you know.

The great unwashed herein are just pi$$ed because one of 'em isn't red.....
EDIT: As am I of course - It's good to see the FIA isn't always "Ferrari international assistance" though.....

Cheers,
Ian

 

great. save for a few, teams got caught with their pants down. it's just another case of 'oh sh#t, we should've done that'. happens every year in F1. now lets get back to racing...and lets see if/which one of the team develops their car the best throughout the year... but money would put on Button and Brawn taking it all this year. Ah, what a breath of fresh air. Still, i hope the top dogs can make things interesting throughout the year... gonna be fun. YAY!!!

 

Not saying they (or any team) deserve it but I'm told a minimum of 80 hours in a wind tunnel is a good starting point in developing the aeros with a new diffuser. I find newey's comment that whiting told him the RB original diffuser was illegal disturbing as newey said it was similar to the other three.