20/03/2014
NEWS STORY
According to McLaren's Eric Boullier, heading in to last weekend's Australian Grand Prix teams were already aware that special attention needed to be given to the fuel flow sensor.
Questions over the sensor's accuracy were first raised during pre-season testing, though it was made clear at the time that it would remain the source of truth when it came to measuring fuel consumption.
The FIA provided sensor is backed up by a manual calculation based on data derived from the sensor prior to any fault to ensure each car uses only the 100kg of fuel allowed.
Red Bull was excluded from second position following Sunday's race after it emerged Daniel Ricciardo's car had used too much fuel, leaving the Milton Keynes team to argue the sensor was faulty and that the calculations provided by the FIA left it at a competitive disadvantage.
"The FIA took a position in Bahrain at the second test where it was clear that the fuel flow sensor would be the reference and had to be used," said Boullier in the first McLaren online press conference of the year.
"We knew that there was a little bit of need to filter the signal a little bit," he continued. "There was a little bit of deviation and we had to be careful with the fuel flow.
"It's clear that it was raised early enough that there was a little bit of an accuracy issue between the different sensors," the Frenchman added, "but we have been working closely with the FIA since early January to make sure that we understand the needs and understand if we could improve the system. All the teams were obviously welcome and working all together."
Mat Coch