Ross Brawn: Tips and Tricks

Ferrari, McLaren, BMW, as well as Renault, Red Bull, and even Toyota have all been considered at least once in recent weeks as favorites for this new season. The reason stems from the general uncertainty resulting from the radical reforms undertaken by the FIA.

However, it is on another team, whose participation was long uncertain, that no one would have bet: Brawn GP. Indeed, with the end of the Jerez and Barcelona tests, it turns out that the miracle machine of the super brain Ross Brawn has outshone the competition by every rule of the art.

On the questions from some about whether this is really possible, the commentator Christian Danner from the German television channel RTL answers yes, it is.

The car seems to have been developed very early he explains: « A quite special aerodynamics has been decided, an aerodynamics that the competition does not have ».

And it is precisely on this point that the competition is tearing its hair out. Brawn is a master in the art of finding loopholes in regulations that are supposedly well locked down. For example, according to the regulations, the diffuser, which draws air at the rear and sticks the cars to the ground, must not exceed 175 mm. This is in any case checked when the race direction inspects the cars from underneath. Thus, no element should exceed these famous 175 mm.

But the magic of Brawn is having allowed another diffuser to be installed inside the first one. This way, when you look at the car from underneath, everything is compliant, with the other part of the diffuser, which is longer, being skillfully hidden.

Due to this clever maneuver, Ferrari is positioning itself against Brawn GP, as are Williams and Toyota. “We have applied the new regulations with our car. Others have chosen another way to do it. It is up to the FIA to dispel doubts about this other way of doing things, and to do so as quickly as possible,” said Stefano Domenicali.

But as usual, the FIA shies away and prefers to defer to the race stewards, who will be responsible for ruling on this matter. The teams will have the opportunity to protest this weekend at the Australian Grand Prix.

So the race stewards should decide whether the diffuser is compliant with the current rules or not. Their judgment would then be valid for the entire season, unless of course there is an appeal.

In the meantime, the rival engineers have already started working. Indeed, development programs to copy the diffuser have been launched. It is relatively easy to copy this solution. What surprises me is the fact that not more teams have already done so until now, said Sam Michael, technical director of the Williams team.