The FIA deems Red Bull Racing car floor holes illegal – Formula 1 news
The FIA has issued a technical ruling to clarify that the holes in the Red Bull floor which almost caused protests at the Monaco Grand Prix are in fact illegal.
The Red Bull team have had these holes since the Bahrain Grand Prix. The race was won by Sebastian Vettel and then Mark Webber won the race at Monaco. The rivals of the team felt that the holes were questionable.
The Red Bull car passed the scrutiny during the three races but due to the risk of teams threatening to protest against it the FIA has finally deemed it illegal.
The holes were made to create more down force for the car which may have proved to be the main difference in Monaco where down force was integral to success.
The floor holes go against the regulations that were introduced in 2011 to ban double diffusers but according to Christian Horner there were some grey areas in the regulations and his team exploited those.
FIA has said that it does not agree with the interpretation of Red Bull of the ARTICLE 3.12.5. speedtv.com published an extract from the technical directive, stating, “Following on from a number of discussions in Monaco, during which it became clear that
certain misunderstandings existed, we feel it would be helpful to make our position clear with respect to the presence of a fully enclosed hole in any surface lying on the step plane.”
“It has been argued that, as it is not explicitly stated that fully enclosed holes cannot be located in a surface lying on the step plane rearward of a line 450mm forward of the rear face of the cockpit template, then they may be located in such areas. We
disagree with this view and consider it implicit that fully enclosed holes may not be located there.”
It will be interesting to see how Red Bull counter this new development, whether they fight the issue or find other grey areas in the regulations to come up with new developments in the car.
Red Bull are serious contenders of both drivers’ and the Constructors’ Championship.
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