Ross Brawn says that Mercedes’ novel design is not expensive but hard to implement – Formula 1 news
Ross Brawn, the team principal of Mercedes AMG has expressed his disagreement that the novel F-duct design of W03 is expensive, however, he said that it is difficult to implement in the existing designs of the cars.
The Brackley-based team has been receiving critical remarks from the contenders regarding the legitimacy of its DRS-activated F-duct device, particularly from Red Bull Racing and Lotus.
However, FIA have called the design legal.
Moreover, many rivals raised the issue that the F-duct design is very expensive and would not be affordable for the lower budget teams. Conversely, Brawn rejected the argument and said that it is inexpensive. Nonetheless, he said that it is very hard to
execute in the current cars’ design.
“People talk about the huge cost, but there is no huge cost. There's a couple of carbon pipes running down the car. The man in the street would tell you they are a few thousand pounds, they're not millions of pounds. But the benefit we've gained is because
we've thought about it and designed it into the car and that's not so easy for the people who haven't got it,” said Brawn.
In addition, he said that the debates regarding the innovative design are going on only because of the reason that it is very complicated to manage in the existing systems of the cars. He also said that had it been easy to handle, there would not have been
any kind of argument against it.
“If someone could put it on their car easily, I promise you we wouldn't be having these discussions. But they can't do it very easily, which is why they're getting so vexed about it,” he added.
Nevertheless, it will be important to mention here that the team principal of Red Bull Racing, Christian Horner has still been asking the governing body of FIA to give further explanations about the legality of the Mercedes’ F-duct and its compliance with
the rules and regulations.
Besides, he is expecting that Charlie Whiting, F1 race director will take it into consideration ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix which is going to be held at Shanghai International Circuit on April 15, 2012.
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