Sauber has revealed it cannot afford to simply jump in and copy Mercedes’ innovative F-duct solution.

The small Swiss team had almost winning race pace in Malaysia last weekend even without the extra straight-line speed that would be provided by a system along the lines of Mercedes’ DRS-complimenting concept.

Despite their complaints about the legality of the system, there is little doubt the big-budget teams will be working frantically to emulate the Mercedes’ concept, which to date has the blessing of the FIA.

According to Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport, however, it will be a different story for the smaller teams.

“If we started now with a blank sheet of paper, we would be ready in two months,” said Sauber’s chief designer Matt Morris.

“But it would really add up. We have to ask ourselves whether it’s worth it for us, or whether we would be better off chasing the laptime with more conventional steps.

“On the other hand the big teams can handle a development like that in parallel to their normal programmes,” he added.

Also on the technical front, Auto Motor und Sport reveals that rival teams are closer to getting to the bottom of Red Bull’s ever-flexible front wings.

After the last day of testing in Barcelona, detailed photographs emerged of Sebastian Vettel’s stricken RB8 that appeared to show a sort of torsion bar inside the damaged front wing.

The report said the torsion bar may be pre-loaded in order to pass the FIA’s static load tests, but then bend at speed.

An FIA insider suggested the system, although permitted in private testing, “would not be allowed” at the actual grands prix.

 Christian Horner has admitted Red Bull is keeping its cards close to its chest ahead of the 2012 season.
Under the glare of the F1 world’s eyes, the title-defending RB8 has been in action for four days at Jerez recently.

But when the Adrian Newey-penned car was officially launched, the team refused to host a traditional unveiling ceremony, instead releasing a short animated video.

“We didn’t want it photographed at the first opportunity from every side by our competition,” admitted team boss Horner to Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

Amid Red Bull’s meteoric recent success, rival teams have copied the blown diffuser and flexible wing concepts, and this year’s ‘step’ noses are all the result of yet another Newey design philosophy beneath the chassis.

“At last year’s launch at Valencia there were 100 photographers all doing their shots from the roof of the pits,” Briton Horner exclaimed.

“In no time at all, everyone knew every dimension of our car.”

So, in 2012, some mysteries about the RB8 continue to exist — one is the real or secondary function of the letterbox-style nose slot, and another is an unlaunched development of the exhaust layout.

“Last year we had to have the blown diffuser out early,” explained Horner, “because we had to find out how the exhaust gases affected the tyres.

“This time, the secret is in the detail, and you don’t want to give your competition too much of a helping hand,” he smiled.

When Adrian Newey said a mysterious ‘letterbox slot’-shaped air inlet in the stepped nose of his new RB8 car is for driver cooling, a wave of speculation eased.
But not everyone inside the F1 paddock was entirely happy with that answer.

When the 2012 Red Bull was launched recently, it was apparent the ‘step’ nose design differed from its rivals in the form of a sizeable inlet where the monocoque meets the new mandatory lower nose height.

Some surmised it must be for KERS cooling, or perhaps even an F-duct style channel through to the diffuser.

Amid suggestions Mercedes has come up with an F-duct style channel in its 2012 front wing, Red Bull designer Newey explained that the nose slot is in fact simply to cool the drivers.

“Traditionally the driver cooling slot is at the front of the nose,” explained Newey, “but really for styling as much as anything we moved it to where you now see it to break up the aesthetics of the ramp.”

There are, however, doubts about that explanation, particularly with close-up images showing that the main inlet is actually divided into two channels at the middle.

Indeed, the Telegraph last week quoted Newey as having said the slot is “primarily” for cooling, which suggests that it might have another use.

According to Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport, “the competition is suspicious”, having already been outsmarted by Newey in past years in the area of flexing wings and blown diffusers.

When asked about Newey’s driver-cooling explanation for the big letterbox slot-style inlet, an unnamed rival engineer smiled: “Then the drivers are going to get their feet wet when it rains.”

Asked last week about the ‘cooling inlet’ amid Jerez’s cold temperatures, Mark Webber reportedly grinned to Autosprint: “The toes are a bit too cold now actually.”

 Charlie Whiting has given the 2012 cars at the Jerez test this week an early clean bill of health.
It was reported the FIA’s technical delegate decided to attend the opening test of the 2012 pre-season amid speculation the teams may have overstepped the mark with their new exhaust layouts.

Exhaust-blown diffusers have been banned for this season, but the early signs were that teams had been clever in their interpretation of the new rules to maintain an aerodynamic benefit.

“At the moment they’re all legal,” Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport, following Whiting’s inspection of all the team garages on Wednesday, quoted the Briton as saying.

Red Bull’s Adrian Newey also played down all the speculation about 2012 exhaust interpretations, insisting there is unlikely to be a “bright idea” from this year’s restrictive rules similar to the double diffuser or blown exhaust innovations.

“We do not see any big differences between all the possible solutions,” he said. “The rules are very specific and very restrictive.”

That could, of course, be great news for Red Bull’s rivals, particularly with the FIA having also clamped down on flexing front wings — another area perfected recently by Newey.

“That rule change,” said Newey, referring to the halving of the allowable wing flex for 2012, “came very late.

“The result is that the wing has gained a lot of weight, making it harder to achieve the optimum weight distribution.”

Newey said the FIA’s new stance on wings was “probably” powered by the violently fluttering components on Ferrari’s car late last season.

Indeed, between Ferrari and Red Bull, there already appears some tension.

Spain’s Marca newspaper claims Newey suspected Ferrari’s initial exhaust solution on the F2012 was not legal.

Then on Wednesday – the day of Whiting’s pit visits – the Maranello based team hastily cut into its exhausts and fairings, ostensibly to meet the new rule about top visibility.

“Honestly,” Ferrari designer Nikolas Tombazis said, “I haven’t seen anything out of the ordinary. We have analysed what everyone is doing and I do not see a great innovation that we have not studied already.”

The saga will continue to run.

“They will still be able to use the exhausts (aerodynamically) this year,” predicted Remi Taffin, engine supplier Renault’s track boss.

“So we will see changes in this area in the Barcelona testing and probably also in Melbourne,” he is quoted by France’s Auto Plus.

The flexible cars controversy slowed down the previously dominant Red Bull team at Spa-Francorchamps, according to Jenson Button.

Although the Austrian owned team claims the long straights of the Belgian circuit simply did not suit the RB6, McLaren’s Button suspects Adrian Newey had to modify the car to meet more stringent bodywork flexibility tests.

Button’s boss Martin Whitmarsh, and Mercedes’ Ross Brawn, said last weekend that they thought the front wings on the Red Bull and Ferrari cars were flexing less visibly than they had in Hungary earlier in August.

“I think Red Bull’s pace was affected by the new tests,” said the reigning world champion.

“I hope the new even more stringent tests for Monza will have even more of an effect. They say they won’t have to change anything but they said that here.

“Watching the car here on the track it was not flexing as much,” added Button.

The 30-year-old also does not expect Red Bull to obtain a championship advantage by appointing Mark Webber as the number one driver for the rest of the 2010 campaign.

“I don’t think they will. I think they love Vettel,” he said.

McLaren team boss Whitmarsh added: “I think (Red Bull) quite like their younger driver, so I doubt they will put their weight behind Mark.”