05/04/2010
NEWS STORY
Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali has revealed that the Italian team is working "flat out" on its on interpretation of the F-duct system introduced by McLaren this season and used to good effect in Malaysia.
The controversial system, which has also been tried by Sauber, sees the driver close a vent in his cockpit - in McLaren's case worked by the left knee - which stops the airflow through a slot that runs along the top of the engine cover, effectively stalling the wing and giving the driver as much as 6 kph more on the straights.
"On the system of McLaren, for sure we are working flat out at home," said Domenicali, according to ESPN, "because we saw the benefit that seems to be very, very big above all in the main straight with certain conditions. But we will bring as soon as everything will be reliable, and we will be 100% sure that the system will work."
However, despite the obvious advantage of the F-duct, which allowed Hamilton to post the highest top speed through the speedtraps over the course of the Sepang weekend, Domenicali believes the Red Bull is the quickest car overall.
"I think it is difficult to say for sure who has the fastest car after three Grands Prix?" he admitted. "If I had to look from the number point of view, we are leading the championship so we should be fastest. But we know that it is a very optimistic approach and this is not the way that we think.
"We think that, looking at the results of the first three Grands Prix, Red Bull did three pole positions and they had reliability issues on other occasions. So the Red Bull seems to be the most competitive car. But I don't want to forget that also McLaren seems very good, that is the ranking I see if I had to freeze the situation today."