Karun Chandhok is today a shadow of the boy who a decade ago dreamed of emulating his heroes.

On a trip to Delhi this week, he revealed to the Daily Pioneer that when he left high school he peaked at 96 kilograms.

“I was told that if I wanted to race I had to lose weight in order to first fit in the car,” said Chandhok, who as Team Lotus’ reserve driver is tipped to contest India’s inaugural grand prix late next month.

“So I lost 26 kg in less than six months and went on to win the Indian national racing championship. I guess that was the turning point for me,” added the now 27-year-old, who graduated to British F3 and then GP2.

The Red Bull flexing wing saga reared its head yet again at Suzuka.

The controversy had died down following the subsiding of the RB6′s dominance at recent races, and evidence that new FIA scrutineering tests had lessened the visible bending of the car’s front wings.

But at Suzuka, Red Bull’s dominance returned, as did video and photos showing the front wings almost touching the track.

So a reporter for the German tabloid Bild am Sonntag ventured into the FIA test garages at the Japanese circuit to observe Joe Bauer checking over the Suzuka-spec RB6.

The reporter witnessed the car lifted into the air on the test stand before 100 kilograms of weight – double the amount of the former tests – was applied to the front wing.

The RB6 passed the test, even though cynics suggest that at high-speed downforce loads, the Red Bull fails the letter of the rules.

Bauer said: “For that (test), we’d have to build a wind tunnel at each track!”

Indeed, if those downforce-like loads were simulated with mere scrutineering weights, the clever Red Bull wing design would likely break.

The RB6 also passed the FIA’s more stringent 300kg underbody test at Suzuka.

The price for customer teams of Mercedes’ 2011-specification KERS system has reportedly increased from an original EUR 1 million to 6 million.

Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport reports that F1 teams initially agreed that customer supplies of the energy-recovery technology next should cost purchasing teams just 1 million euros.

A further 5 million euros per team could then be spent on developing the systems.

But instead of receiving 1 million euro invoices from Mercedes, customer teams McLaren and Force India are reportedly being charged 6 million each.

The report, published on Wednesday, speculated that Force India in particular will not be able to afford the inflated price, in addition to its 9 million euro bill for Mercedes’ 2.4 litre V8 engines.

On the bright side for Mercedes’ KERS customers, the German marque believes it can supply a system next year weighing just 21 kilograms, compared to the 25kg system in 2009.

It is believed the other KERS manufacturers – Ferrari, Renault and Williams – are not going to follow Mercedes’ lead by increasing the price of their KERS systems.

Sam Michael, technical director at Williams, is surprised at the reports about high development costs.

“We have estimated the cost of our KERS at half a million pounds (sterling),” said the Australian, “and it will not weigh more than 25 kilograms.”

Red Bull is using an unchanged front wing at Spa-Francorchamps, but the floor of the RB6 might soon have to be tweaked to satisfy tougher FIA scrutineering tests.

The front wing flexibility test was altered for Belgium, essentially to ensure that wings are bending downwards only in a linear fashion when weights are proportionately applied.

Red Bull boss Christian Horner said these tests had not necessitated a design change since the car dominated in Hungary, but it has emerged at Spa that the FIA also has its eye on other aspects of alleged flexing.

It is believed that the RB6 is getting its front wings so close to the ground also due to having a bendy floor.

Tweaked floor flexibility tests, and new rules stipulating the amount of breaks or joins allowed underneath the cars, will reportedly be applied as of the Italian grand prix at Monza next month.

“I cannot say whether we will be affected more or less than any other team,” said Horner on Thursday.

Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport said the existing floor tests involved applying 200 kilograms to the front of the floor, allowing flexibility of no more than 5mm.

At Monza, the new tests will reportedly involve additional loads being applied now at several locations underneath the cars.

“Webber said in an interview a couple of weeks ago that if you have a very special device on the car, people should have to build their own.

“I didn’t know they had a device on the car, so there you go,” said McLaren’s Jenson Button on Thursday.

“We’ll see what happens here, and we’ll see how their pace is compared to us,” he added.