Rumours are once again swirling in the F1 paddock about the alleged illegality of Red Bull’s dominant single seater.
The latest speculation is about the apparent flexibility of the Adrian Newey-inked RB7′s floor.

“I’ve heard about it but I certainly do not participate in the rumours,” Mercedes’ Norbert Haug admitted on German Sky television.

“There are enough people who do that — spending a lot of time writing all sorts of those kinds of stories,” he added.

“Of course, everybody looks around, which is perfectly normal.”

Swiss commentator Marc Surer said he has seen the offending images of the bottom of Mark Webber’s car, showing “drag marks in the middle of the floor”.

“The competitors see it too and think ‘Ah, something is up’. I happen to think that as long as the car passes the tests, everything is in order,” he added.

Formula one engines will still sound good in the wake of the current V8 era, the governing FIA has insisted.
The unique noise produced by powerful high-revving engines has been an issue each time the regulations substantially changed, including when V8 engines became mandatory at the abolition of the V10 era for 2006.

But the proposed switch in 2013 from V8 to 1.6 litre four-cylinder turbo engines caused unprecedented angst, including from Bernie Ecclestone and the majority of his race circuit promoters, who threatened to boycott F1 if the cars sounded like “tin cans rattling”.

A compromise has been reached in the form of a 1.6 litre V6 turbo engine, producing 15,000rpm rather than the 12,000 proposed for the inline-four rules, to debut in 2014.

But in a media document on Thursday, the FIA denied the rev increase for V6s was in deference to the sound debate.

“This parameter has been updated from 12,000 to 15,000rpm to allow engineers more flexibility in power and energy management,” read the statement.

“However, as a consequence of the new architecture and the change in rev-limit, the engine will sound different, but will remain representative of formula one,” claims the FIA.

The governing body also insists that the V6 engines will not use more fuel than under the defunct four-cylinder plan.

“The fuel flow limit will stay the same,” read the document. “The challenge will be even bigger than originally planned and will therefore enhance the technological lead of formula one.”

According to one F1 correspondent, Sebastian Vettel’s slippery slide into the wall on Friday revealed a hidden secret of his dominant Red Bull car.
The team’s rivals are yet to uncover the mystery of how the RB7 passes the ever-stricter flexibility tests whilst the front wing still so obviously bends towards the track.

It is believed teams including Ferrari and Mercedes are getting closer to the mystery, but the damage to Vettel’s wing incurred by his Istanbul practice crash might have provided yet another clue.

El Pais correspondent Oriol Puigdemont wrote from Turkey that unidentified wires or cables were seen dangling from the upright supports after the main element of the front wing broke off following Vettel’s crash.

The cables were “the beginning of much speculation”, claimed Puigdemont, acknowledging that the wires could simply be for observation cameras placed around the car by the team.

Martin Whitmarsh insists it would be a strange coincidence if Red Bull’s weakened dominance is not connected with the flexible bodywork saga.

Just two months ago in Hungary, the RB6 was utterly dominant, but at the subsequent Belgian, Italian and Singaporean rounds, it was Red Bull’s rivals that took the chequered flag first.

Lewis Hamilton said last week that Adrian Newey’s car was slowed by the FIA’s more stringent front wing and floor flexibility tests — a claim denied by Red Bull.

“It (the end of Red Bull’s dominance) may be a coincidence, but that would be quite strange,” McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh told Germany’s Auto Bild Motorsport.

He said that while the wings on the Red Bull and also the Ferrari cars were visibly bending, those two teams “had some very strong races while we were at a loss”.

Whitmarsh confirmed he was involved in the push to clamp down on the visible flexibility of Red Bull’s car.

“I asked (the FIA) whether we could design wing endplates that touch the ground, and the clear answer was no.

“So if we can’t do it, then the others can’t as well, because endplates that are 20 to 30 millimetres lower to the track equates to about one second per lap,” insisted the Briton.

He thinks that, without the latest flexible bodywork saga, McLaren’s championship situation might be very different with just four races now to run.

“Maybe we weren’t clever or bold enough,” said Whitmarsh.  “But if a system is not legal, then nobody should be allowed to use it.”

McLaren team figures believe the recent flexible bodywork saga will have taken the shine off Red Bull’s earlier dominance.

At F1′s last outings in Spa and Monza, where new FIA compliance tests came into effect, the RB6 was no longer the stand-out dominant package it had been at earlier events.

But Red Bull already expected to struggle at those high speed circuits, due to its less powerful Renault engines.

In light of the team’s dominance on twisty tracks like Monaco and Hungary, therefore, this weekend’s racing on the Singapore street circuit might be seen as a litmus test of the true effects of the FIA’s flexibility clampdown.

“I think a lot has changed since that race in Budapest — not least, some quite hefty revisions to the rulebook regarding bodywork flexibility,” said Jenson Button.

Team boss Martin Whitmarsh agreed: “Singapore is likely to give us a much clearer idea of the respective pace of the leading teams after two less-representative events in Belgium and Italy.”

Chief race engineer Phil Prew is also hoping Red Bull will be closer to the rest of the field in Singapore this weekend.

“The legality clarification and changes that we’ve all made in response to that could well influence it (the pecking order),” he said during Wednesday’s Vodafone phone media conference.

“We’re optimistic that the gap, which was massive by formula one standards, should well have reduced,” added Prew.

He said he now feels all the teams are racing on a level playing field.

“The advantage that was felt to be gained by Red Bull and Ferrari in Hungary will be harder to exploit,” confirmed Prew.

The intended configuration of Red Bull’s car for the Italian grand prix failed the FIA’s more stringent floor flexibility tests.

It emerged earlier this weekend at Monza, where Sebastian Vettel was ultimately the team’s highest placed finisher in fourth, that the key competitors all passed the tougher tests.

Indeed, the RB6, as well as the Ferrari and McLaren, were tested by official FIA scrutineers at various points on Friday and Saturday and were all deemed legal.

But it has emerged that, prior to the official tests, Red Bull and McLaren – who both admitted to making modifications before travelling to Monza – asked to use the FIA’s new testing equipment and methods in the scrutineering bays.

McLaren’s MP4-25 passed, but Red Bull’s car failed by a small margin, according to the BBC.

The team reportedly made overnight modifications, and after Mark Webber qualified fourth on Saturday, the RB6 was re-tested and officially passed the new tests.

Red Bull has had to modify the design of the floor of its 2010 car in order to comply with stricter flexibility tests debuting at Monza this weekend.

Although it is Red Bull’s allegedly flexing car primarily in the spotlight, McLaren admitted last week that it – alongside most other teams – will have to run more a more rigid floor from now on.

And a look up and down pitlane at Monza show that McLaren’s prediction is right, with many cars either featuring visibly sturdier front floors, or additional ‘stays’ to prevent them from bending at high speed.

And Red Bull team boss Christian Horner confirmed that the RB6 is featuring “small changes to the underbody” at Monza.

He added: “I would be surprised if this affects our performance in any way.”

McLaren has modified the floor of its 2010 car to conform to new floor flexibility tests introduced this weekend at Monza.

Ironically for the British team, the FIA devised the new tests amid shrill complaints about the allegedly flexible Red Bull and Ferrari cars.

“The new offset load test is a little challenging,” admitted Tim Goss, chief engineer for the MP4-25 car, during a team teleconference on Wednesday.

“We’ve had to make some minor modifications just to make sure we’re well inside the deflection limits.

“We’ve taken the opportunity to roll it up into a minor performance upgrade as well,” he revealed.

The first wave of new tests debuted at Spa-Francorchamps two weeks ago, where McLaren figures observed that they thought the Red Bull was not flexing as much as it had previously.

Goss, who said McLaren did not need to modify its front wing at all, thinks the Red Bull will also be affected by the Monza floor tests.

“I think as far as the offset bib test is concerned, I would expect most teams would have had to have made changes to comply with that,” he said.

“As far as articulated planks are concerned, there are a number of teams who run floor skids in multiple pieces and I imagine other teams will have to make modifications for that,” added Goss.

He thinks this weekend’s Italian grand prix will be hotly contested.

“I think most people would say we’re unlikely to see Red Bull Racing with the substantial advantage they had at the Hungarian grand prix,” Goss concluded.  “I bet Monza will be very tight.”

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.”

McLaren needs to get creative if it is to claw back its lead in the 2010 world championships, according to boss Martin Whitmarsh.

With clearly the faster car, Red Bull has taken over at the top of the points tables, but McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton is only 4 points shy of leader Mark Webber.

In recent weeks, Woking based McLaren has been working on emulating Red Bull’s blown floor concept, but Whitmarsh said the team’s engineers also need to be more creative during the ongoing development of the MP4-25.

“We have not suspended the diffuser project, but we hope to invent something new,” he is quoted by Autosprint magazine.

Creativity is at the heart of the current front wing flexibility controversy, with Red Bull expecting to pass even the more stringent scrutineering tests at Spa-Francorchamps next weekend.

Whitmarsh said McLaren has an understanding about the regulations that may not be shared by some of its competitors. “The FIA needs to make this area absolutely clear,” he said.

“If clarity does not come, we too can become very inventive and creative,” the Briton is quoted as saying.

According to Adrian Sutil, Red Bull is leading the pace with its 2010 car because the team is “smarter than everyone else”.

Although driving for the rival Force India team, and not enjoying the benefits of a legally flexing front wing, the German driver is open in his admiration for the championship-leading outfit.

“You have to push the rules as far as you can,” he said in an interview with Auto Motor und Sport.  “And Red Bull have been smarter than everyone else.

“Somehow they manage to do everything a little better,” added the 27-year-old German.

Sutil acknowledged that while Red Bull’s spending is more powerful than Force India’s, the old formula of a whopping budget does not explain their success.

“I think Herr Newey has very special skills,” he said.

“For me, the Red Bull is an incredible car,” added Sutil, also refusing to criticise the Milton Keynes based team for passing the flexibility tests whilst clearly enjoying the benefits of a flexing front wing.

“If you notice nothing in the tests, then they have done nothing wrong.  That’s just clever,” he said.

Almost every formula one team will need to beef up the rigidity of their front wings before the Belgian grand prix late this month.

With the Red Bull and – to a lesser extent – the Ferrari wings visibly bending towards the track at recent races, the FIA advised all teams last Sunday that it will be revising the flexibility load tests.

Previously, the wings had to bend no more than 10mm with 50kg of weight applied to the endplates, but from Spa-Francorchamps the test will double to 100kg/20mm.

The implication is that Red Bull and Ferrari had devised a way to pass the 50kg test with wings that flex only when under proportionately higher loadings.

Italy’s La Stampa cited “anonymous sources” in reporting that “almost all teams” will need to adjust their current designs in order to pass the new tests.

A Ferrari source is quoted as saying: “We will adapt but it will not affect our competitiveness.”

La Stampa said Fernando Alonso spent all Tuesday on the driver simulator, working on a new aerodynamic package.

“In the seven remaining races, whoever gets six or seven podiums will be the champion,” he is quoted by the Spanish press.