FIA Technical Directive 15: Use of exhaust blown gasses to be restricted (or not, as the case may be)

Brogan said:
Either it's legal or it's not, at this point time.

The FIA can't ban it, then reverse their decision, then say it is coming later in the year, then say teams not running them can protest the other teams.

All in the space of 3 days.

It's bloody farcical!
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Its like a cross between Wacky Races run by Fred Karno's army.Pathetic.>:(
 
It has turned out it was Williams who were the main whistle-blowers regarding this whole off-throttle blown diffuser saga.

Adam Parr has said when asked:- "yes, we – and I don't know if we are the only team – but we have checked the situation with the FIA"

I'm losing a bit of respect for Williams in recent years. They seem to do an awful lot of moaning and protesting. I can understand they're frustrated with their own performance but meh. Wasn't there something last season that the majority of the other teams agreed to and Williams didn't?

I can't believe Charlie Whiting has said the FIA are open to teams logging a protest regarding teams using off-throttle techniques. To be honest that is a complete joke! The FIA tell teams they can't use them, then say they can and then at the grand prix, say they will accept protests, basically trying to scare the teams. OK FIA just disqualify 9 or 10 of the team and lets have a grand prix with HRT vs Virgin . . . bloody morons, stop fucking with the teams and just give them some proper clarification with a realistic time period to make changes.
 
Huh.Where did you read that.This is what Adam Parr said at Fridays press conference.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/91557
Q. And the diffuser rule. What is your feeling on that?

AP: We have mixed feelings because since Spa last year we have been using the same technology. If it is illegal we are illegal. On the other hand, to take it to another level is a significant investment for us and logically we would like to understand the legality of it before we do it. I think we will be very interested to see how that plays out over the next month.
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sportsman, I read it here, in the same press conference, later on.

Q. (Italian) Adam, it is said that it was Williams who suggested to the FIA to have a look at the blown diffuser situation. Is that correct or not?
AP: As I said earlier on, we have been doing this exhaust blowing since Spa last year but there is another level which other teams are doing, as Stefano said, they were clever enough to do that. Before embarking on any major investment, we would always check the situation with the FIA because there are some arguments concerning the legality of this, especially because of a change in the rules this year compared with last year so yes, we – and I don't know if we are the only team – but we have checked the situation with the FIA to make sure before we spend a lot of money.
 
sportsman said:
Huh.Where did you read that.This is what Adam Parr said at Fridays press conference.
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Williams did protest or where about to...well according to this and I wouldn't be surprised as all they do is complain a hell of a lot these day:

The FIA has warned teams running with off-throttle blown diffusers at the Spanish Grand Prix that there is a risk of them being subject to a protest this weekend.
Although motor racing's governing body decided to hold back on a move to immediately outlaw teams from pumping gases through their blown diffusers when drivers were off the throttle, it has not wavered from its belief that the practice is against the regulations.
FIA technical delegate Charlie Whiting said in a media briefing on Friday that although the governing body would not act to disqualify cars this weekend, it could not rule out a team not running such off-throttle blown diffusers - like Williams, Virgin Racing and HRT - from protesting.
"It is always a possibility," said Whiting. "I've made that clear to the teams that it could happen and then we will take it to the stewards in the normal way.
"We have always maintained in all of our technical directives that we have sent for many years now that this is merely the opinion of the technical department, and anyone is free to challenge it in front of the stewards. It doesn't happen very often but it has happened in the past. As you know with the brakes in Brazil, for example, in 1998.
"But it can happen and I've told the teams that were pleased that we decided to postpone this introduction that it could happen."
When asked if there was the chance, then, that the FIA would have to disqualify the majority of the grid, Whiting said: "I would like to think that that probably wouldn't happen, but one never knows. It is not beyond the realms of possibility. A protest is open to anybody as you know, then it will go before the stewards."
Whiting said that the FIA had decided to act on off-throttle blown diffusers because it was worried about how extreme some solutions were becoming.
"It became apparent to us through examination of data that what we thought was a fairly benign feature was turning into something that was being used, in our opinion, illegally," explained Whiting.
"An exhaust system is there for the purpose of exhausting gases from the engine, so when you are off throttle it is not doing that – therefore driver movement is being used to influence the aerodynamic characteristics of the car.
"We were becoming increasingly concerned about the increase in extremes, shall we say. Then a bit of fuel, a bit of spark, retard, it was getting more and more extreme and that was the main reason for it."
He added: "These things start off little and start off appearing to be quite benign, but then they get worse and worse and worse. And we are now faced with the possibility of even more extreme systems coming along, so we felt it was time to do something about it.
"Of course exhaust blowing is not new, it has been around for years, but I think Red Bull really took it to another plain with their low exhaust at the beginning of last year, and it became clearer and clearer through engine mapping that it was time to do something about it.
"It got more and more and more extreme. It is by no means unusual – these things happen. It happened with brake ducts for example and aerodynamic appendages on brake ducts, and in the end you realise you have to do something about it. So, it was really not at all unusual."
And amid suspicions that the FIA acted after a complaint from a team not running an off-throttle blown diffusers, Whiting said: "We often do react if a team writes to us about something.
"They will ask us to circulate that correspondence in order to flush out what other teams might be doing. That was the case [in this instance], but the team concerned did not want us to divulge who it was."
 
Point taken tranquility. But to say Williams were the "whistle blowers" is rather overstating the issue.They asked for clarification as they were running the system and needed to upgrade it.
Teams asking for rule clarification is common practice.
 
I thought it may be interesting to look at who improves the most from Q2 to Q3 so far this season, given that this is the suggested optimal time to use any extremes of engine mapping for the EBD.

Team    Average time change Q2 to Q3

Red Bull-Renault -00:00.7

Mercedes GP -00:00.1

McLaren-Mercedes -00:00.4

Ferrari -00:00.2

Renault -00:00.4

Toro Rosso-Ferrari 00:00.8

Force India-Mercedes 00:00.3

Sauber 00:00.2

I know that it is a small sample so far this year but the results are reasonably interesting (to me). Obviously this is far from definitive but speculation is always fun. I have not taken into account any Q3 events e.g. traffic, accidents other than when the driver did not set a time, these are excluded.

Also I would point out some driver specifics:
Rosberg has gained 1.2 seconds across his 4 Q3 times, Schumacher has lost 0.5s in his sole appearance.
Vettel has an average of 0.8s gain to Webber's 0.6, with Vettel having found about an extra 3.4 seconds between Q2 and Q3 across the season.
Buemi struggles when he reaches Q3, having gained 1.2 and 0.7 seconds, whilst in his one appearance Alguersuari gained 0.6s.

I apologise that when I got the data off of the BBC site it rounds to the nearest tenth (or I couldn't get excel to display any better) but for this exercise it should be sufficient. Apologies also for the crap presentation, Bro is being useful but it's late:sleeping:.

As ever the usual stats caveat, this doesn't show the whole story but it does give us something to speculate on for what may happen if/when a ban comes in to effect.
 
According to Andrew Benson, the reason the ban was delayed was because the teams told the FIA the rule didn't say what they said it said.

:confused:
 
Brogan said:
Either it's legal or it's not, at this point time.

The FIA can't ban it, then reverse their decision, then say it is coming later in the year, then say teams not running them can protest the other teams.

All in the space of 3 days.

It's bloody farcical!
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F1 really is this season with the new rules...however they worked in Spain perfectly, DRS wasn't effective, shows we need to get rid of it, Pirelli tyres were degrading less, this to me was the best race of this season, action everywhere and less "artificial"

Anyway, it's 9 teams against 3 who will win?
 
Sorry but this is a joke if HRT protest. The teams have 3 days before they're in Monaco, baring in mind Monaco is a unique track and requires a lot of preparation and unique parts as it is. To expect the teams to then have to undergo further changes to the engine maps is ridiculous. Fair enough if they get rid of it for Silverstone or Valencia and give the teams some time to prepare for it.

I hope all the other teams vote HRT out of the race if they ever fail the 107% rule. One of them nearly took Lewis out today and cost him half a second as he didn't pull over. They are practically racing GP2 cars in F1!
 
Someone needs to remind them that this a grown ups game. If they can't take the heat get out of the kitchen.8-)

Edit: At the very least stay out of the bloomin' way >:(

Edit 2: Oh, and HRT should be grateful that McLaren don't protest their blocking.:crazy:
 
They are on or around 107% pace at best. If they can't find themselves one to two seconds in qualifying, they desperately need to slow the front teams down or they wont be competing in any more GPs! Im not backing their cause, but you can see where they are coming from. Less sour grapes, more fighting for the teams survival i think...
 
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