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McLaren shelves suspension plans

McLaren will not introduce self-adjusting suspension © Sutton Images

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McLaren has shelved plans to introduce a self-adjusting suspension system at the Chinese Grand Prix, after the FIA's clarification on the issue in Malaysia made it clear that such developments are illegal.

Rumours in the paddock suggested Red Bull was running suspension that was adjusting the ride-height between qualifying and the race, when such alterations are banned, to gain optimum downforce. The team denied the speculation and on Sunday in Malaysia the FIA clarified that any alterations are strictly forbidden unless the team is willing to start the race from the pit lane.

Before the clarification McLaren had been working on a system, but during the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Phone-In, engineering director Paddy Lowe confirmed the team was no longer planning to use it.

"We became aware of different way of interpreting it [the rules regarding suspension], which we hadn't historically thought to be the normal interpretation, and we were reacting to that," Lowe said. "Now that the FIA has taken a fresh view of it and drawn a line - that we think is closer to the historical line - we're reacting to that too and we've had to change some of the things we were doing.

"We got the feeling we were rather late to the game. But we absolutely don't know who's been doing what and whether indeed anyone has been racing anything in the nature of ride height-control systems. We had things we were working on but they have now been suspended."

Lowe added that teams were still allowed to adjust the ride height during pit stops as long as they did not adjust the car on the grid before the race.

"There is what you can do to the car between qualifying and the race and there's what you can do during the race," he said. "In parc ferme, there's quite a clear ruling that says any adjustment to the suspension would require you to start from the pit lane. This was originally intended to stop people changing springs, ride heights and that sort of thing.

"This has got a bit tricky because you can design suspensions that self adjust during that period and there are all sorts of physical techniques you could use to do that. If you can imagine a suspension that without any human intervention it changes its set-up then I think there is a perspective that would say I haven't touched it so it's no different.

"I think what the FIA have now clarified that I think makes things very plain and straightforward is that if even if you don't touch it, if effectively you've programmed it to change then you've effectively made a change in set-up.

"What you can do during the race has also been clarified by the FIA. There are systems that can be relaxed which control ride height during a race, a bit like active suspension, but without using external power. Such systems were captured going back to 1993 by that same interpretation - they are no different to active suspension, even if they don't use external power.

"During a pit stop you can adjust the ride height but you couldn't adjust it on the grid."

He also said that McLaren were still expecting to be competitive in China due to a set of planned updates unrelated to the car's suspension.

"We made some improvements for Malaysia and we've got some more for China, which are all aerodynamic and [should be worth] several tenths," he said.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.