James Allison says Mercedes’ F-duct design is not new – Formula 1 news
James Allison, the technical director of Lotus has said that there is nothing new in the DRS-activated F-duct device of Mercedes.
Moreover, he notified that the design can lead to a new dimension of costly developments for all the teams in F1.
Mercedes novel design can be used to boost up the top pace of the car in a straight line on the track which provides a substantial benefit to the team.
It will be important to mention that it only proves out to be beneficial only if there are no restrictions on the use of DRS for instance the Brackley-based team perform well in the qualifying when DRS was not restricted but could not do well when there
was restriction on it.
Lotus and defending champions, Red Bull Racing have been criticising Mercedes’ design and have questioned its legality for many times.
Moreover, Allison said that the F-duct design was just the same as the original one in 2010 which was led by McLaren and was banned by FIA afterwards due to the issues of non-compliance with the rules and expensive development.
“It's a secondary effect, but it's absolutely operated by the driver,” Allison said. “Mercedes hasn't invented something; it was there, and other people were under the impression that it wasn't legal. If this is allowed you'll see everyone doing it, and
it won't stop there, there are many, many other things that can happen.”
Christian Horner, the team principal of Red Bull said that they will not start working on the F-duct design as it may be called as illegitimate later.
“As with all devices like this it's how it interacts with the rest of the car,” Horner said. “Of course I'm sure all the designers certainly at the front end of the grid have been looking at how the device works, how you would incorporate it into your own
design.”
Besides, he said that he will keep on raising questions about this matter until FIA don’t provide the required explanation.
He also said that they expect final decision from FIA in this regard in China.
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