24/06/2011
NEWS STORY
Talking to the media in Valencia, Charlie Whiting has denied that mid-season changes to the regulations are aimed at preventing Red Bull running away with both titles.
In a move introduced since Canada, from this weekend teams are not allowed to alter the engine mapping on their cars between Saturday's qualifying session and Sunday's race, while from Silverstone there are strict limitations on blown diffusers with teams banned from using engine mapping to create additional downforce by using exhaust gases produced even when a driver is lifting off the throttle.
With many believing that the moves are aimed at stopping the Red Bull steamroller, FIA technical delegate Charlie Whiting held his second media briefing of the year today in an attempt to make it clear that nothing could be further from the truth.
"I am aware of some stories being written but to be frank with you I know it is not a political one," he said. "I know it is a purely technical intervention from our side and I feel perfectly comfortable with that.
"What we are doing is stopping people breaking the existing rules," he continued. "It's not for us to say whether a certain team would be more penalised than others. It just depends how extreme they are going. But I have certainly seen evidence of maps on a number of teams which are extremely extreme.
"It's not confined to one team, I can assure you," he added. "It's a bit like the mass damper where its use when it was first introduced by one team was fairly benign when it came to aerodynamics. But the more it got developed, the more extreme the designs were. These things escalate to the point where something has to be done."
The Englishman also admitted that lessons had been learned following both the Monaco and Canadian races. "One is we need to discuss with the teams whether or not working on cars, changing tyres, should be allowed during a race suspension," he said. Referring to the recent race in Montreal, which was stopped for almost two hours due to the weather conditions, he revealed that in future a time limit could be imposed.