Charlie Whiting press conference

14/03/2013

The FIA's Charlie Whiting sat down with this press earlier today to discuss matters of a Sporting and Technical nature.

What follows is the full transcript together with notes from Pitpass' technical expert Matt Somerfield.

In regard to the mapping of the Renault engine is it the same as Hockenheim, or what is it that they are trying to do?
Charlie Whiting: I obviously can't tell you exactly what they are trying to do, but after Hockenheim we issued a clarification to limit the amount they could change the ignition timing, based on a reference map taken from one of the first 4 races of last year. We felt that if we allowed them the flexibility to choose any map from the first 4 races where the sort of arms race on exhaust development hadn't really started, that would be a good starting point. Then we allowed them 2.5 degrees +/- from that reference map of their choice. Some teams want to go outside of that this year and so we explained to them that they can't. Technical directives stay in force until they're incorporated into the rules or superseded. Everyone accepted that, I think Renault were under a slight misapprehension that they could choose a different reference map, but we explained to them that they couldn't.

Matt Somerfield notes: Having the ability to choose a map from any of the 2012 races or a new map rather than the first 4 as a reference map would have allowed the teams to take further advantage of exhaust blowing. The FIA having already realised the potential that can be extracted from this during 2012 have made the wise choice of retaining the first 4 race reference map directive.

Charlie, we have had a fair amount of controversies over the last few years with Double Diffusers, Hot & Cold Blowing, Flexible Wings, where do you detect right now, critical areas where we might drop into further discussions?
CW: I'm not aware of any similar controversies (if that's the word you want to use) so at the moment I don't think there are any, but one never knows what might pop up during the course of the year. We attended the two Barcelona tests in order to try and ensure that when we got here neither we or the teams had any nasty surprises. Jo and I were there and we had a fair few discussions with the teams over a number of things. The purpose of that was that we didn't have those discussions here and to some extent hopefully that's worked.

Matt Somerfield notes: Already mentioned above some of the Renault teams ran with what could be classified as illegal mapping during the Barcelona tests. However nothing is illegal in testing and so the teams and Renault returned to their other maps after consulting with Charlie. Williams and Caterham both ran exhaust blades mounted within their exhaust channels, to which Charlie reminded them of a Technical Directive issued that prohibited the re-ingestion of exhaust gases downstream of the exhaust. In both cases Charlie's presence at the pre-season test alleviated any pressure on the teams and FIA before the teams reached Melbourne.

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