nicolachew

It has been quite evident that a lot of changes and crucial decisions have been made over the course of the 2 weeks since the European Grand Prix, from the announcement of Daniel Ricciardo's in Silverstone to Williams' and Renault's reunification, but one decision the FIA has made has definitely riled people up (especially the Red Bull fans in particular), and that is the new implementation of the blown diffuser ban.

I have to admit that I'm not an engineering whiz and have had to do some research on the concept and dynamics of the blown diffuser such as cold blowing and hot blowing. From what I've read, the blown diffuser increases lap time for about half a second and is used primarily during qualifying as it results in 15% of fuel consumption and exerts a lot of stress on the engine, hence making it impractical to use during races.

What's interesting is that the teams that will be most affected by the new blown diffuser ban are the front-running teams: Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari. However, Ferrari is probably the team that will be least affected (out of these 3 teams) by this new rule as their blown diffuser exhaust systems were not very effective in the first place.

It will be Red Bull that will receive the largest impact of this ban, as they rely mainly on the combined use of the blown diffusers and their KERS systems to generate a fast lap and enable them to fly around fast corners and hgh speed turns. But with the new ban, they will be at least 0.5 seconds slower every lap. This, obviously, has given them something to worry about. For one, it will significantly lessen the gap between the Red Bulls' and McLaren's/Ferrari's qualifying time. Furthermore, as Ferrari is the team which will suffer the least, they might see an improvement in their qualifying time and find themselves inching their way up the grid in the next few races. What this means for Red Bull is that they might find themselves fighting for a 1-2 on the starting grid with the McLarens, instead of usually cruising their way through qualifying and occupying the front row of the grid with ease.

It looks like the battle between the 3 top teams just became more intense, and we may see some fierce driving and competition during this weekend's qualifying in Silverstone. With the technology and engineering being constantly modified with the continuous introduction of new rules and regulations and the FIA, I guess the safest element the drivers can count on to earn themselves a good lap is their own skillful driving.