Lotus Renault GP’s James Allison cautious about downforce loss at the British Grand Prix – Formula 1
Lotus Renault GP technical director James Allison has said that he is cautious about the car losing some downforce at the upcoming British Grand Prix as a result of the off-throttle Blown Diffuser ban.
The ban is going to be enforced by the International Automobile Federation (FIA) starting from the British GP.
“We'd be foolish to enter the race without some idea of what it was going to do. I don't think we would be alone in having had a little look at it at the last race either, because it's perfectly possible to mode in those engine mapping configurations and
see how it behaved last race, so we did that,” he said.
It is believed that the team to lose lap time the most is going to be Lotus Renault GP. Adrian Newey, Red Bull Racing’s aerodynamics specialist, recently stated that since Renault are using a front exiting exhaust system, they are going to face a lot of
problems starting from the British Grand Prix.
After that statement, Allison stated that he hopes Newey is not right but it is believed that is likely to happen while Red Bull Racing are expected to lose around 5 tenths a lap as a result of this ban.
“I hope he's not right, but if we are we are. It's a clarification we didn't anticipate and I think I'm on record already as saying I would have preferred the status quo to have remained until the end of the year, but we'll just get on with it like everyone
else,” said Allison.
According to the FIA, it was recently clarified that the teams will now not be able to use engine mapping in order to blow gases through the exhaust system which is connected to the Diffuser while the throttle is not being used.
Nevertheless, the upcoming race is going to be the real ‘pace-setter’ for all the teams as it is believed that the regulation changes might even change the order of the grid in terms of performance. It is expected that the gap between Red Bull and its rivals
McLaren and Ferrari might decrease as well.
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