23/06/2010
NEWS STORY
McLaren engineering director Paddy Lowe has confirmed that his team will introduce a new exhaust system at Silverstone based on the type pioneered with great effect by Red Bull this season.
In its attempts to try to prevent its rivals getting the low down on the system, which is extremely low mounted and helps channel the air flow through the diffuser, thereby giving greater aero efficiency, the Milton Keynes team has tried every trick in the book including placing stickers meant to look like exhausts outlets on the bodywork and placing a gang of mechanics around the rear of the car whenever it is stationary.
Nonetheless, McLaren now has its own version and will introduce it in time for next month's British Grand Prix, the team's home race and an event which will witness a major upgrade for the MP4-25.
"It won't have escaped your notice that Red Bull have an interesting use they have made of exhaust exit flow," Lowe told reporters during a phone-in press conference this morning. "It's quite a significant performance step. and it's something we're aiming to bring to the British GP and to try and make it work from the outset.
"There are some technical challenges with it," he admitted, "especially as blasting your bodywork directly with exhaust flow can generate some particularly high temperatures. It's not without challenges to hit the ground running with a system like that when we don't have any proper track testing. However, we'll be doing trials at an aerodynamic day before Silverstone to hopefully have it working in the practice sessions and the race.
Meanwhile, with Red Bull scheduled to use its version of the F-duct this weekend, a device originally pioneered by its Woking rivals, Lowe appeared unconcerned.
"Well we'll see what they do with it," he said. "They brought it to Turkey and ran it on the Friday, and then they didn't have it for the rest of the weekend. It's a system that is not without challenge to get it to work, particularly to work in a way where it's a net positive in performance improvement. That's up to them, I don't know how well they're going to do or not do.
"It's not a huge concern for us," he added. "We've expected teams to be playing catch up in that area, just as we're emulating the exhaust aspect."
Ahead of today's meeting of the WMSC, Lowe confirmed that the F-duct will be banned next season.