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Virgin primed for regulation change

Virgin has been focusing on improving the car in other areas since Barcelona © Sutton Images

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Virgin sporting director Graeme Lowdon says that the team has not been using the off-throttle blown diffuser since the Spanish Grand Prix.

In the week prior to the race in Barcelona FIA technical delegate Charlie Whiting informed the teams that the practice of blowing the diffuser when off-throttle would be banned with immediate effect. Following consultations with the teams the ban was delayed until this weekend's British Grand Prix, but Lowdon told ESPNF1 that Virgin had decided to follow the directive immediately.

"I think Charlie Whiting is quite right on what he's said on this subject which is it's not a mid-season rule change it's a clarification of a rule that's already there," Lowdon said. "And the rule for me is really quite clear which is that the primary objective of the exhaust is to get rid of the stuff that you're burning to create torque from the engine, and not as an aerodynamic device.

"So we as a team made a decision back in Barcelona to run to the technical directive that Charlie issued to the letter, so we've taken the step that the teams are about to take in Silverstone a few races ago already, and we've suffered in performance because of it."

Lowdon said the main reason behind the decision was a more long-term approach to improving the VMR-02, and that it did not express much opposition to the delay of the implementation of the ban.

"It would have been nice if the FIA brought in the ban more quickly because it's taken two or three races, but that's just the way it is. And also we had our own reasons for doing it anyway because we want to get more speed from our car and it was pointless pretending that you had some if you like by using something that you knew was going to be prevented in a few races time.

"So yes it would have been nicer if it had happened a bit quicker, but we recognise that things happen this way and there could have been some genuine reasons why some teams had difficulty; I can't really see how, it's not a difficult change to make on engine maps or anything but I think this way nobody can complain at all."

Having said that the change was easy to make, Lowdon also said that he did not agree with the notion from some teams that cost was an issue.

"Some of the bigger teams were talking about expense and it made me smile because they will move mountains and spend skip loads of cash on certain upgrades, so I don't really buy the terms of the whole thing about cost being a problem. It was some cost for everybody, everyone's done it and everyone's spent it. It's been, it's gone, the regulation is quite clear and the interpretation I think is really quite clear and everyone now agrees it so it's where it should be now."

Chris Medland is an assistant editor on ESPNF1.

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