Norbert Haug questions the legitimacy of McLaren’s F-duct – Formula 1 news
Mercedes motorsport president, Norbert Haug has questioned the exhaust design of McLaren and has hit back on the issue of F-duct legitimacy in the 2012 F1 season.
The Brackley-based team has been facing immense criticism on its DRS-activated F-duct device, particularly from Lotus, Red Bull Racing and Ferrari.
Moreover, Eric Boullier, the team principal of Lotus declared to challenge the results of the qualifying at the season opener help at Albert Park in Melbourne, Australia over the legality of Mercedes’ new device. However, the technical delegate of FIA, Charlie
Whiting cleared the device to be legal, later.
Furthermore, Mercedes clarified that the novel F-duct is completely passive and is not activated by the driver during the race as it is triggered by the opening of rear wing in DRS zones.
“We have to live with that,” Mercedes’ motor racing chief Haug is quoted by Sport Bild. “Until we are faster in the race, but it’s not true that we do not have a good car. We are a serious team that has to pretend nothing; we have prepared well in winter
testing.”
In addition, FIA agreed that Mercedes’ innovative design is not illegal. Conversely, another question has been revealed as Mercedes only performed better during the qualifying with the use of F-duct, whereas, it struggled in the race in which the use of
the device was limited.
Besides, the team principal of Mercedes, Ross Brawn turned the table over and said that all the criticism on W03’s F-duct is meant to divert the attention from the issue of blown diffuser ban by FIA.
Additionally, Haug said that at the time of considering for the restriction on exhaust blown diffuser, FIA might have overlooked the F-duct issue. He added that they will not protest against the ‘clever’ British team.
“It is quite legitimate that we ask the FIA for a clarification, otherwise we could be missing a trick. It’s part of the game,” he said.
Mercedes with its innovative car design has been considered as one of the most competent teams in this season after their reliable pre-season testing programme as compared to the last year in which they could hardly test run their car before the first race.
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