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Newey admits exhaust impact

Adrian Newey says Red Bull may have lost more performance than other teams due to the banning of the off-throttle blown diffuser © Getty Images

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Adrian Newey admits that the new RB8 has a less steep rake because of the new exhaust regulations.

Having pioneered the exhaust-blown diffuser, Red Bull's RB7 could run a high rear ride height to improve overall downforce. With the FIA banning such aggressive use of the exhaust gases by regulating where the exhausts exits can be located, Newey admitted that he had been forced to lower the car and that he didn't know how much it would impact its relative performance.

"RB7 was designed around the exhaust," Newey said. "This year knowing that the exhaust position from last year would be taken away, we've had to go back and look at how we developed the car through the last one and two years with the side exit exhaust and try and, if you like, make sure that the routes we had taken that were only suitable for that exhaust position we now had to re-evaluate.

"Probably one of the key things there is the rear ride height. The exhaust allowed us to run a high rear ride height, it's much more difficult without that to sustain a high rear height so we have to go back down and have to redevelop the car around that lower ride height ... We designed the RB7, last year's car, around that exhaust position and were probably the only people to do so, so it may be that we've lost more than other people through that."

Newey added that the new regulation annoyed him slightly because it didn't open up other design possibilities.

"Regulation restrictions like the lost exhaust are a bit frustrating in truth, because they are exactly that, they are restrictions, they're not giving new opportunities or revenues particularly, they're just closing a door. Regulation changes I enjoy, regulation restrictions I rather lament."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.