The eyes of the motorsport world will gaze upon Paris tonight as a panel of FIA judges rule on the legality of the controversial ‘double-decker’ diffuser.
Stewards initially cleared the device’s use prior to the Australian Grand Prix, allowing Brawn GP, Williams and Toyota to compete in the 2009 championship without altering their designs.
But Ferrari, BMW, Red Bull and Renault appealed the decision, claiming the use of the diffuser was an unfair exploitation of Article 3.12.5 of the FIA’s technical regulations.
The rules state: Fully enclosed holes are permitted in the surfaces lying on the reference and step planes provided no part of the car is visible through them when viewed from directly below.
The key point of contention regarding this rule is that the ‘Diffuser Three’ refer to the holes in their diffusers as gaps, but Ferrari advisor Rory Byrne believes this interpretation is against the spirit of the FIA laws.
He told La Gazzetta dello Sport, “It’s a rule set at least 14-15 years ago, and that for many years everyone interpreted in the same way. If you look at the Brawn car from underneath, you can see the suspension.”
The FIA’s ruling has the potential to completely change the complexion of the championship, and according to Kimi Raikkonen, will be the deciding factor in this year’s title race.
“The FIA’s Court of Appeal will decide about the diffuser and this decision will have an enormous impact on the championship,” Raikkonen said to Autosport.
“We’re missing grip and downforce. You just need to analyse the performance in the three sectors at Sepang to understand that we’re losing a lot compared to the best cars. You could see it especially in the middle sector where downforce is really crucial.”
There will be tears before bedtime for one group tonight. But which one?
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“Unfair” does not mean “illegal” or “against the rules”. And racing to a set of rules means that every possible avenue should be exploited within those rules.
Ferrari and co are only having a dummy spit because they didn’t think of it themselves, but can’t come up with a legitimate reason why they shouldn’t have the front runners disqualified.
To Charlie..Ferrari is not the only team contesting the legality of the rear diffusers (which effectively negates much of the downforce lost through narrower rear wings), BMW, Renault and Red Bull are also complainants- what about them??. Ferrari themselves have been subject to protests in the past, so why are they not entitled to do the same?. I personally find it hard to believe that a team of Ferrari’s expertise got caught ‘napping’ or ‘missed the boat’. They along with BMW, Renault and Red Bull feel that these diffusers contravene the rules and as such didn’t bother pursuing this type of design.
Sounds more like Ferrari and co were not caught napping as such, they are just trying to prevent the other teams from running what they now wish they’d thought of doing themselves. I hope they throw out the protest and allow the diffusers. Most times in F1 innovation from previous thinking has happened in this way