• European Grand Prix

Ferrari to adopt Red Bull-style exhaust system

The rear of the Ferrari will be overhauled in time for Valencia © Sutton Images

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• Williams also pinning hopes on new exhaust system
  
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• Alonso puts first miles on revised F10
  
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• Ferrari upgrades not a 'last ditch effort' - Alonso
  

• Race:
• European Grand Prix

• Championship:
• FIA Formula One World Championship

• Drivers:
• Fernando Alonso
• |
• Stefano Domenicali

• Teams:
• Ferrari

A feature of Ferrari's heavily-upgraded F10 car in Valencia next weekend will reportedly be Red Bull-style exhausts.

Rival teams initially thought an illegal ride-height control system was the secret of the RB6's speed, but it is now believed that the layout of the rear of the car - including low-mounted exhausts and pull-rod suspension - is the basis of its success. Spain's AS newspaper reports that the updated F10 will be between three and four tenths per lap quicker than the basic specification raced in Turkey and Canada. The report also said the change represents a fundamentally new aerodynamic direction for the car, opening up a new avenue for subsequent development.

"The most important improvement in Valencia is not what we achieve there, but the way it opens up developments to be stronger for the remainder of the season," Fernando Alonso confirmed.

As well as the lower exhausts, updates will feature modified rear suspension as the team shifts its focus away from the tricky and time consuming F-duct.

"For sure there is a need for a more aggressive push," said Domenicali. "It was clear that we had concentrated too much effort on this blown rear wing [F-duct] - we spent a lot of effort there, being not focused on the other areas of the car. From Valencia onwards the focus will be to develop other areas of the car apart from this blown rear wing, because it is a complicated system that took a lot of resources out of our team."

He added: "Looking at the championship, it is very, very open. I did a calculation that if we had won the race [in Canada] we would be leading the championship with Fernando. It means that everything is really very, very open and that is the motivation that we should have inside to make sure that we push race-by-race. Canada gave a picture that was totally different from the picture we had two weeks ago."

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