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Newey admits blown diffuser ban hurting Red Bull

ESPN Staff
August 17, 2012 « Coulthard drives New Jersey circuit | Massa knows what is required - Domenicali »
Adrian Newey believes the ban on exhaust blown diffusers has hurt Red Bull more than the other teams © Sutton Images
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Adrian Newey admits that the banning of the exhaust blown diffuser is hurting Red Bull's competitiveness this season.

Having pioneered the concept throughout the 2010 and 2011 seasons, the FIA outlawed diffuser blowing for this year. With Sebastian Vettel having secured a dominant world championship victory last season, neither Red Bull driver currently tops the standings as its advantage has all but disappeared, and Newey told Autosport that the regulation change had affected Red Bull more than the other teams.

"It's pretty much as we feared before the season started," Newey said. "Having explored exhaust blowing technology quite heavily for two seasons and then having that taken away together with other changes like the front wing flexibility [test rules], hurt us quite a lot. Probably more than other people because we had been exploiting it for longer. It has taken a while to try to understand what we need to do and to recover."

It appears that Red Bull will spend some of the time before the Belgian Grand Prix working on how to make the car perform under the new engine regulations, with Newey revealing it was yet to make changes following the engine-mapping clampdown.

"We've been working with Renault and were suddenly faced with a clarification that was a different interpretation to what we thought we were operating to. That's where we are and we've got to go back and have a fresh look."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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