off throttle ban removed

Formula 1’s governing body has confirmed that teams will be allowed to continue running off-throttle blown diffusers for the remainder of the 2011 season – rescinding the ban that was temporarily put in place for Silverstone and then withdrawn shortly before qualifying.

The FIA had been eager to clamp down on the increasingly common practice of feeding exhaust gases into the diffuser while drivers are off the throttle for aerodynamic benefit, but backed down halfway through the British Grand Prix meeting following public complaints and lobbying from the leading teams about the fairness and enforceability of the new restrictions.

Red Bull and engine supplier Renault were enraged after a concession to allow them to keep their throttles 50 per cent open under braking – which they claimed was needed for reliability reasons, and which followed an earlier concession to Mercedes – was granted by the FIA and then withdrawn again after Friday practice.

After strong objections from Red Bull team principal Christian Horner and design chief Adrian Newey, the FIA convened its Technical Working Group to discuss the issue and hammer out a solution that would be acceptable to all teams.

The upshot was that the FIA reverted to the previous rules for the rest of the Silverstone weekend, and announced that it would be willing to allow off-throttle exhaust blowing until the end of the 2011 season provided all the teams agreed.

Ferrari and Sauber initially withheld their support, but the FIA confirmed in a document published on Thursday that agreement had now been reached to revert to the rules that were in place at the European Grand Prix in Valencia, where off-throttle blown diffusers were permitted but teams were banned from running special engine maps for qualifying.

“Following the events of Friday [at Silverstone], the FIA president felt that it would be useful to have an open discussion in order to see if consensus could be reached,” the FIA document stated.

“Following these two meetings there was unanimous agreement among the teams to revert to the engine mapping regime used in Valencia, ie freedom on settings but no changes to the maps between qualifying and race.

“This was felt to be the most sensible solution to a very complicated matter as the possibility of finding an alternative solution, which would be fair to all engine manufacturers, was becoming increasingly unlikely.”

The FIA added that the teams had agreed not to protest each other over this issue for the remainder of the season now that the rules have been modified with their involvement.

“All cars will run under 'Valencia' conditions for the remainder of the season,” the governing body said.

“We are optimistic that there will be no protests over any engine mapping and exhaust tailpipe issues this season.

“In addition to the main part of the agreement reached in the TWG meetings it was also agreed that no team would raise a protest against another on these matters for the rest of the season.”

The governing body said one of the main reasons it had pursued this issue was to prevent an undesirable escalation in costs as teams developed increasingly radical solutions.

“We decided to act as, not only did we consider such extreme mapping to be arguably illegal, but also if such freedom was left unchecked it would result in the teams incurring significant further development costs during the season,” explained the FIA.

And while it has conceded defeat over off-throttle exhaust blowing for 2011, the FIA is confident that changes to the regulations governing the siting of exhausts for 2012 will effectively ban the practice.

“The teams have already agreed to strict constraints on exhaust tailpipe position which will result in them exiting the bodywork much higher up and no longer in the vicinity of the diffuser.

“Therefore, any aerodynamic benefit from exhaust gas flow over bodywork will be kept to an absolute minimum.

“Engine mapping will remain free (within the existing constraints of the FIA SECU) as, with the exhaust tailpipes in this new position, it is felt that any aerodynamic benefit will now be incidental to their primary purpose.”

source : itv

Pretty bloody stupid.

All that aggro and confusion for something that lasted 1 race.

So it looks like the rest of the season will be as you were, "Red Bull, Red Bull Uber Alles", barring any miraculous updates from the chasing pack.

Ferrari looked to have taken a big step forward at Silverstone (even allowing for Red Bull messing up Vettel's pit stop). It'll be interesting to see whether they can keep up the pressure. IIRC they were the biggest opponents of the exhaust-blown diffuser.