Christian Horner has played down the impact of the blown diffuser regulation change at Silverstone, but admits that no one knows what might happen.
The first stage – the banning of an engine map change between qualifying and the race – had very little impact on the formbook in Valencia last weekend, but the complete ban on using maps from Silverstone onwards is a much bigger change.
“It’s the same regulation clarification for everybody,” said Horner. “But the effect it will have on the others, that’s impossible for us to predict.”
Asked by this blog whether RBR’s role as a pioneer of diffuser blowing might make it harder to take a step back, Horner said: “I don’t think we’ve gone as extreme as others either with the type of air that they’re blowing, or the positioning… One team [Renault] obviously have built their entire car around it.
“One would have thought it would have a bigger impact for them than some of the others. I think what you’ll see is that the net loss is probably going to be fairly consistent across the front running teams.”
The key is that it’s not just about the overall loss of downforce but balancing the car to make good use of the gases still legally available under acceleration.
“As with all things it’s a matter of balancing the car, so it’s a matter of making sure that we can achieve the kind of balance that we’ve had in the races to date. And hopefully – touch wood – we will be able to do that. We only get to see that in Silverstone.”
Adam Cooper F1 