FIA banned off-throttle blown diffuser, Red Bulls seeks clarifications

FIA has made clear to the teams that they are banning the off-throttle blown diffuser form British GP. Earlier, FIA was planning to ban the blown diffuser from the Spanish GP but at that time FIA was not clear about the impact it will cause on the performance of the teams. FIA however, wrote to F1 teams that they will not allow the use of off-throttle blown diffuser from the British GP.

FIA’s declaration has been confirmed by Williams’s technical director Sam Michael that the teams has been informed and the use of off-throttle Blown Diffuser will be illegal from the British GP. Sam Michal said, “The FIA has made its position very clear. They want to talk about the fine details on Thursday, but what Charlie is saying is that hot blowing is banned and cold blowing is banned from the Silverstone GP onwards.”

“For 2012, the exhaust system must exit behind the rear wheel centre line, actually 330mm behind, so right out the back of the diffuser. That means there cannot be any exhaust influence on the diffuser. That is what the FIA has clarified and then Thursday is about implementation.”

Charlie Whiting during Spanish GP said that FIA is coming with the decision to ban the off throttle blown diffuser because they believes that the teams are exploiting that area of the car way too much. He said, “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.”

“An exhaust system is there for the purpose of exhausting gasses from the engine and when you’re off-throttle, it isn’t doing that any more. Therefore it’s being used to influence the aerodynamic characteristics of the car. We think arguably, this infringes Article 3.15 of the technical regulations.”

FIA has used the interpretation of its aerodynamic regulations according to which state that

driver actions cannot have an influence the car’s aerodynamics, to state that exhaust gasses cannot be blown through the diffuser when the driver is off-throttle.

FIA had made it clear during the Canadian P at Montreal that no team will be allowed to use the Blown Diffuser in the British GP but, Red Bull racing team is seeking clarifications on this rule in the meeting which is scheduled to take place this week. RBR team is seeking for the clarifications because they are the one which will lose the most because of the ban. Red Bull Racing is the only team which is perfected in the use of Blown diffuser. Red Bull Racing wants to make sure that the team will not lose much ground because of the new regulation.

On the impact of the ban on the team Red Bull Racing team Principal Christian Horner said, “There are two issues. One is the impact of it, which I doubt will probably affect us any more or any less than any other team.”

“But the other one is the mechanism and the understanding behind the technical directive. That is what will undoubtedly be debated in the TWG next week, which is probably the right forum to discuss it. There are certain questions that we want to ask about the technical directive that we need clarification on.”

Apart from Red Bull every other team is unsure about the impact of the change in rules. Most of the teams believe that the it will going to affect Red Bull Racing team at most during qualifying. Ferrari Team Principle Steffen Domenicali believes that after the ban the Formula 1 world championship will see the second phase.

In Montreal he said, “We need to see in Silverstone, what is the real effect of this change in the regulations with regard to the effect of the exhaust. Then, we will see really where the second championship in terms of the level of performance is above all in higher downforce tracks.”

FIA is looking to ban any type of diffuser from 2012 season onward in order to change the exhaust regulations.