- Bahrain Grand Prix
Teams accept FIA's decision on McLaren wing
ESPNF1 Staff
March 12, 2010
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The McLaren rear wing has generated plenty of interest over the past week © Sutton Images
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Official protests from rival teams are now unlikely after McLaren's controversial rear-wing design was declared legal by FIA officials in Bahrain.
"It looks like it's legal so we will look at developing our own version," Red Bull team boss Christian Horner. "Engineers are creative people. I'm sure ours will find another way of doing it," he said.
The FIA agreed to look at the wing after what Horner admitted was "a bit of fuss" in the paddock. The FIA's Charlie Whiting had intended to check the design at McLaren's Woking headquarters last week, but after flight delays from Brazil opted instead to leave the inspection until the day of scrutineering for the season opener.
It is believed McLaren's system involves an air inlet on the upper left monocoque top, which is opened and closed by a trigger activated by the drivers' knee. Germany's Auto Motor und Sport quoted an FIA official as describing it as a "simple but brilliant trick".
It is believed direct copies of the system, with airflow into a cockpit inlet controlled to the rear wing by the movement of the driver, are unlikely for two reasons.
Firstly, the 2010 monocoques are homologated, making significant alterations difficult, and it is believed that rival teams do not yet fully understand McLaren's ingenious solution.
"From what I understand, there are no grounds for a protest," said McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh. "I don't think everyone yet understands the nature of the systems that are on our car. So if they put a protest in, it would potentially be on a wrong set of assumptions as to what we've got. We will see."
Whitmarsh, who is also chairman of the F1 teams' association FOTA, cheekily suggested that rival teams might copy the inlet on the upper left surface of the monocoque for the purposes of "cooling their drivers".
He said the unnamed engineer responsible for the idea will be outed within time. "Secrets in F1 have a remarkably short shelf-life and we will make sure that, in due course, the individual gets quite a lot of credit."
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