Everyone is talking about it, but there have been no actual pictures of graphics of the offending diffuser.

Has anyone seen it?

And if that is the case it would seem strange that the FIA would now declare the diffuser illegal, just because some teams think that it is against the spirit of the rules. If that was the case the FIA would not have allowed the diffuser a year ago, I would think.

Or am I a bit naive in my thinking here?

Flavio has more faces than an 8 sided clock

Nicely put!

I think the right way to look at is add additional constraints and challenge the teams to race as fast as they can within those constraints. Given more constraints, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the car must be slower than last year’s.

If what Flavio were to say is true, then why give the teams KERS? Doesn’t that allow the teams to go faster than if KERS was not there?

So, Flavio could be correct that the intent of the rule is to reduce the downforce. But, the problem is that the rule does not say “the downforce should be lower than last year”, it says that this is how the structure should be (which we are sure will lead to a lower downforce). But, it turns out that’s not the case.

Ferrari, of all teams, should not be complaining about these “interpretations”. When clearly all movable parts were not allowed, their side pods were moving say to much last year. This year, the side mirrors have the same issue.

I think Williams made a great point here.

And add an extra testing window of 3-4 days sometime before the European leg starts. Everybody will copy it; and the play field will be even.

Its a simple solution. Please don’t change the results of the Australian GP 3 weeks after it is over.

This whole protest is just stupid. The FIA had better throw it out the window.

Because Renault claimed KERS was a waste of money doesn’t mean they didn’t spend it, they just thought it was a waste.

Ferrari were similarly critical of KERS and they’re running it now too.

What happened here is that the three teams are going pretty clearly in the direction of downforce.

Um, derrrrr!

How does this guy think his team won it’s championships? By interpreting a new set of rules better than every other team in 2005, that’s how. That was the year that the front wings were massively raised to cut downforce by supposedly 50% or something like that (which surely helped to create some overtaking problems), and the tyres had to last a race distance. His team managed to claw more of that lost downforce back than their competitors, and won both championships. That’s how it’s done. No wonder Renault are in the poo for the third season in a row – Flav’s forgotten how the sport works!

Anyway, what was the Williams protest about? If it was the turning vanes, then why not also protest Renault, Toyota, Toro Rosso, etc? Well, one obvious reason not to protest Toyota I suppose!

It just feels wrong – Williams is a team I would normally put in the class above “if you don’t like our diffuser, we’ll claim your car is illegal too” – they gave loads of people an extra few hours of work for nothing. Either see the thing through or don’t start counter-protesting in the first place.