Bob Bell blasts FIA over McLaren ruling

Date published : 12 Mar 2010 - 11:29:51

Renault's managing director Bob Bell has lambasted the FIA's decision to give the green light to a controversial aerodynamic concept on McLaren's 2010 car describing it as ridiculous and a complete joke.The Woking squad's MP4-25 passed pre-event scrutineering checks on Thursday despite complaints from rival teams about a device it is using to stall' the rear wing and improve straightline speeds.While the initial query raised by Red Bull Racing was the slots in the upper element of the rear wing itself, the controversy has now intensified as more details of how the system works have come to light.It is believed that an air vent on the left side of the chassis clearly visible in the above photograph can be opened and closed by the driver using his left knee.The inlet can thus be kept open to channel the airflow to the rear wing for maximum downforce in the corners, but closed on the straights to reduce drag and boost top speeds.While rival teams are agitating about the system, McLaren insists it has been assured by the FIA that its system is perfectly legal and the MP4-25 duly passed technical inspection at Sakhir on Thursday.Bell, however, claimed on Friday that the trick device is totally illegal and flies in the face of what the teams have been working to achieve in Technical Working Group meetings and other forums.I totally disagree with the FIA's view on it, he told the BBC.It's fundamentally clear in all the discussions that have taken place over many years that the sport did not want stallable rear wings, whether it was through physical deflection or any other mechanism.And the fact that somebody has turned up and just driven a cart horse through the spirit of the regulations, the intent of the regulations, and everybody's understanding, to me is just a complete joke.Bell admitted that McLaren might not have breached the letter of the regulations, but argued that their spirit also needed to be respected given the constraints that have been imposed on the teams in the interests of cost-cutting.And he warned that permitting McLaren's interpretation risks triggering another spending arms race as teams rush to develop their own versions of the venting system and seek other creative ways of exploiting loopholes in the rules.It may conform to the letter of the rules, but I don't think in an instance like this that that's sufficient, because there's been plenty of precedent for concepts where it has just quite plainly been said that the intention with the sport is to prevent stalling of rear wings and this flies in the face of that, he said.I think it's ridiculous in this era when we're all trying to save money.We're restricted in the number of people we can bring to the track, mechanics are working ridiculous hours at nights to prepare the car, and there we are, we've just opened another arms race that's going to cost us a lot of money.It's just a nonsense.I think the governing body needs to be ore responsible in decisions like this.Despite his strong views on the subject, Bell was unwilling to say whether Renault will protest the MP4-25 at this weekend's race.I honestly can't comment on our position at this stage, [but] it's obviously not out of the question that any team could protest if they so wish, he said.And Red Bull boss Christian Horner, who was the first to raise public concerns about McLaren's rear wing, indicated that his team would not lodge a protest but instead develop its own version of the venting system as quickly as possible.It was obvious from testing that they were doing something a bit different, and we just wanted to know whether it was illegal or innovative, he said.Apparently it was innovative¦It's a little bit like the double diffuser [in 2009], but there's no point bleating about it.The governing body feels it's legal, so therefore we'll all end up developing it and pursuing those kind of derivatives.Horner believes the performance gains from stalling the rear wing are not nearly as great as those from the double diffusers controversially pioneered by Brawn, Williams and Toyota last year. I think this is nowhere near the magnitude of the effect on performance that the double diffuser had.You can see that the double diffusers on all the cars this year are absolutely ginormous, and it's somewhat ironic that the team that introduced it now wants to get rid of it for 2011¦This falls more into innovative design, but it operates certainly against the intent of the regulations.But the FIA feels it is okay so that means it's an avenue that we will pursue.McLaren looks likely to maintain whatever performance advantage it is deriving for some time, since under 2010 rules the FIA has already homologated teams' monocoques for the season, creating an extra hurdle for those wanting to emulate McLaren's design.