{"id":15698,"date":"2012-03-30T06:58:07","date_gmt":"2012-03-30T10:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/?p=15698"},"modified":"2012-03-30T06:58:07","modified_gmt":"2012-03-30T10:58:07","slug":"sauber-undecided-on-copying-mercedes-f-duct","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/formula-1\/sauber-undecided-on-copying-mercedes-f-duct\/","title":{"rendered":"Sauber undecided on copying Mercedes F-duct"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sauber has revealed it cannot afford to simply jump in and copy Mercedes&#8217; innovative F-duct solution.<\/p>\n<p>The small Swiss team had almost winning race pace in Malaysia last weekend even without the extra straight-line speed that would be provided by a system along the lines of Mercedes&#8217; DRS-complimenting concept.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"ngg-singlepic ngg-left alignleft\" style=\"margin: 5px;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/gallery\/f1-2012-rif-images\/f1-12-logos\/Sauber-F1.jpg\" alt=\"Sauber-F1\" width=\"288\" height=\"115\" \/>Despite their complaints about the legality of the system, there is little doubt the big-budget teams will be working frantically to emulate the Mercedes&#8217; concept, which to date has the blessing of the FIA.<\/p>\n<p>According to Germany&#8217;s Auto Motor und Sport, however, it will be a different story for the smaller teams.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If we started now with a blank sheet of paper, we would be ready in two months,&#8221; said Sauber&#8217;s chief designer Matt Morris.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But it would really add up.\u00a0 We have to ask ourselves whether it&#8217;s worth it for us, or whether we would be better off chasing the laptime with more conventional steps.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;On the other hand the big teams can handle a development like that in parallel to their normal programmes,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>Also on the technical front, Auto Motor und Sport reveals that rival teams are closer to getting to the bottom of Red Bull&#8217;s ever-flexible front wings.<\/p>\n<p>After the last day of testing in Barcelona, detailed photographs emerged of Sebastian Vettel&#8217;s stricken RB8 that appeared to show a sort of torsion bar inside the damaged front wing.<\/p>\n<p>The report said the torsion bar may be pre-loaded in order to pass the FIA&#8217;s static load tests, but then bend at speed.<\/p>\n<p>An FIA insider suggested the system, although permitted in private testing, &#8220;would not be allowed&#8221; at the actual grands prix.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #888888;\"><em>\u00a9 RIF | GMM<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sauber has revealed it cannot afford to simply jump in and copy Mercedes&#8217; innovative F-duct solution. The small Swiss team had almost winning race pace in Malaysia last weekend even without the extra straight-line speed that would be provided by a system along the lines of Mercedes&#8217; DRS-complimenting concept. Despite their complaints about the legality &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[3],"tags":[3669,5262,5300,5340,3640,114],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15698"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15698"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15699,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15698\/revisions\/15699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}