Peter Sauber rues FIA’s mid-season ban and retraction on off-throttle blown-diffusers – Formula 1
Sauber team Principal Peter Sauber is blaming FIA’s bizarre behaviour over the usage of off-throttle diffuser blowing during the 2011 season as the reason for its 7th place standing in the constructors’ championship.
“For all the joy we have not forgotten that we wanted more,” Sauber wrote in a column for Blick. “At mid season we were solidly in position 6, but we soon fell behind Force India. The reason is the blown diffuser and the so-called 'off-throttle-blowing'.”
“We stopped this development after the FIA announced the ban. That proved to be a mistake because the FIA went back and bizarrely allowed this technology again. It got us badly on the defensive into the second half of the season. Those with the systems optimised
their advantage, achieving much more than a second per lap,” he further added.
Team Sauber were placed at 6th position with a 21-point lead over Force India and 16 points ahead of Toro Rosso. The FIA banned the usage of off-throttle diffuser blowing during the British Grand Prix, and retracted from the ban at the end of the race. FIA
decided it would be wise to change the rule effective from 2012 season. Sauber though after the ban stopped the development of the blown diffuser and lost their way in the season.
Force India displaced Sauber from their 6th position and held on to it for the season. Sauber believes that the final result at the end of the season is not depicting the real picture and that it could have been a different standing for his team if FIA had
not created the confusion over the off-throttle blown diffuser.
It would be interesting to see how the rule change affects team strategies during the 2012 season. Red Bull’s RB7 clearly had an advantage over other cars on the grid with their off-throttle blown diffuser proving to be the best. McLaren’s MP4-26 was the
only car to come close to the RB7 and that too at the final stages of the 2011 season. McLaren though is predicting a much improved competitive car for the 2012 season.
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