Williams become the third team to copy Red Bull’s exhaust system – Formula 1 Update
William’s technical director, Sam Michael, said on Thursday that Red Bull’s exhaust system will be copied in the Williams' car. He further went on to comment that it is the only solution for their FW33 car.
Michael said, “We have played with all the different variations in CFD. The most efficient solution is Red Bull's.” The Williams’ new car, the FW33 has an upgraded gear box which has the highest angles ever seen in Formula 1.
Michael was confident that no one will be able to copy their style and said that most of the teams do copy their rivals upgrade to become competitive. Now, he is the one copying Red Bull’s exhaust system.
Red Bull’s exhaust position is a solution for wet tyres, as it blows hot engine air directly onto the rear tyres making them hot and sticky. The same technology has been copied by Force India and most recently by the Ferrari team, who are using it in the
Barcelona test session. Ferrari’s boss Aldo Costa denied the rumours and said that the package was well planned before even the start of the Valencia test. On the other hand, rumours are that the Mercedes team has made an exhaust solution out of Red Bull’s
and Renault’s exhaust system.
Last year, Williams ended in the sixth position with 69 points. Their driver line-up for last year was Rubens Barrichello and Nico Hulkenberg, who scored 47 and 22 points respectively. This year they have dropped Nico Hulkenberg in favour of Pastor Maldonado.
Williams testing has not been up to the mark with only one fastest time in the Jerez test when Barrichello was driving. The team were almost five seconds behind Red Bull on the second day of the Barcelona test and were facing many technical problems, as
their driver Maldonado stopped twice on the track due to a Kinetic Energy Recovery System problem, although no issues were reported regarding the innovative gear box.
The final pre-season test is under way in Barcelona and Barrichello will drive the FW33 for the last two days of Williams’ testing.
Tags: