McLaren team figures believe the recent flexible bodywork saga will have taken the shine off Red Bull’s earlier dominance.<\/p>\n
At F1’s last outings in Spa and Monza, where new FIA compliance tests came into effect, the RB6 was no longer the stand-out dominant package it had been at earlier events.<\/p>\n
But Red Bull already expected to struggle at those high speed circuits, due to its less powerful Renault engines.<\/p>\n
In light of the team’s dominance on twisty tracks like Monaco and Hungary, therefore, this weekend’s racing on the Singapore street circuit might be seen as a litmus test of the true effects of the FIA’s flexibility clampdown.<\/p>\n
“I think a lot has changed since that race in Budapest — not least, some quite hefty revisions to the rulebook regarding bodywork flexibility,” said Jenson Button.<\/p>\n
Team boss Martin Whitmarsh agreed: “Singapore is likely to give us a much clearer idea of the respective pace of the leading teams after two less-representative events in Belgium and Italy.”<\/p>\n
Chief race engineer Phil Prew is also hoping Red Bull will be closer to the rest of the field in Singapore this weekend.<\/p>\n
“The legality clarification and changes that we’ve all made in response to that could well influence it (the pecking order),” he said during Wednesday’s Vodafone phone media conference.<\/p>\n
“We’re optimistic that the gap, which was massive by formula one standards, should well have reduced,” added Prew.<\/p>\n
He said he now feels all the teams are racing on a level playing field.<\/p>\n
“The advantage that was felt to be gained by Red Bull and Ferrari in Hungary will be harder to exploit,” confirmed Prew.<\/p>\n
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