By Jay
June 25 2010

Mclaren, it seems, are less concerned about developments and upgrades of Red Bull than Ferrari.  

Mclaren Engineering Director, Paddy Lower, admitted that, they are less worried of the F-duct solution which Red Bull is rumoured to re-debut at Valencia GP this weekend.

 

 

"We'll see what they [Red Bull] do," Lowe told the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Phone-In. "They brought it to Turkey and ran it on the Friday, but then bailed out of it for the rest of the weekend. This is their second attempt and it's a system that is not without challenges to get it to work in a way where you're net positive on performance. But I don't know how well they are going to do or not do. It's not a huge concern for us; we expected teams to be playing catch up with us, just as we're emulating the [Red Bull] exhaust. So when Red Bull gets it [the F-duct] to work we are ready to face that."

 

 

He however said that his team is keeping a close eye on Ferrari who are set to debut a new long-slung exhaust configuration on their car, which is rumoured to shave off almost 0.5 seconds per lap.

 

"That is a concern, but we will have to see how they get on with it," Lowe said. "Mathematically that makes sense [that Ferrari will be ahead], but it all depends on each circuit's characteristics and how it suits some cars and doesn't suit others. We saw that Ferrari really struggled in Turkey so I can't predict, as an overall package, where they will end up or where we will end up."

 

The McLaren team is also rumoured to bring a similar style exhaust for the British GP.

 

 

"I think it is common knowledge that all the rest of the teams are playing catch-up [to Red Bull] in that area. So that's something we're aiming to bring to the British Grand Prix, to try and make it work from the outset. There are some technical challenges with it, for example blasting your bodywork directly with exhaust flow can generate some reasonably high temperatures. It's certainly not without its challenges to try to hit the ground running with a system like that when we don't have any proper track testing to do. We'll be doing trials at an aerodynamics day [a straight-line test] before Silverstone and then we will have it working in the practice sessions and race it on the Sunday," Lowe said.

 

 

With development war catching on, fans are about to witness one of the best formula one championship fights this season after a very long time.

 

 

Bring on Valencia!

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