Tempers are already heating up!

This year, there are so many changes to technical regulations that there are just as many opportunities to exploit certain loopholes in the regulations. One element in particular has been at the center of the controversy for several days, the rear diffuser. This must in fact be moved back and its anchor point raised compared to that of last year.

As a result, several teams took offense by observing the broadcasters Williams et Toyota qui, grâce à une astuce technique, se termineraient à une limite supérieure aux 175mm autorisés. Brawn GP serait également concerné, puisque Red Bull Racing threatens to file a complaint against him on Thursday evening, after the technical inspection that each of the 20 single-seaters will have to pass to obtain the right to participate in the first Grand Prix of the season, in Australia.

“The broadcaster of BGP 001 is completely illegal and we will file a complaint, this very Thursday, if this piece is not modified to comply with the regulations. This diffuser guarantees a considerable advantage of 5 tenths per lap! And we are obviously not the only ones to find this revolting,” declared, furious, Helmut Marko, the handyman of the Red Bull team, in the columns of La Gazzetta dello Sport.

The President of the FIA, Max Mosley, declared for his part, a few hours before the opening of the season, that in any case it was now too late to prevent the three teams targeted from having a device that he himself considered even “clever”.

“With a little more time to do so, I probably would have transferred the matter to the FIA ​​Court of Appeal before the Australian GP, ​​but it's too late now and it wouldn't have been fair to them. stables incriminated. One of the possibilities would be that all the teams agree that this broadcaster is illegal and therefore no team should have it from Barcelona, ​​i.e. the 5th GP of the season next May.

“The file will end up in the hands of the commissioners, who will have to make a decision to decide between the two parties, but we can already guess that an appeal request will be filed by one or the other and that it will be therefore the Court of Appeal which will be responsible for deciding the question in the end. It can go one way or the other, we can easily say that the system is legal or that it is not, but someone will have to make a decision and fortunately it is not my responsibility? .