Brawn plays down Merc 'F-duct'

Mercedes team boss Ross Brawn has played down the potential impact of the wing stalling device the team have developed.

Team boss reckons wing stalling device is not a 'game changer'

As intrigue continues to surround the wing stalling device Mercedes have developed for their new car, Team Principal Ross Brawn has played down its potential impact. Interest in the team's W03 chassis has piqued in recent days - in particular the reputed existence of the device, which apparently uses the activation of the car's DRS to stall both its front and rear wings in an effort to reduce drag. Speaking at a press conference in Albert Park on Friday evening following opening practice for the Australian Grand Prix, Brawn admitted that such a device exists but refused to elaborate and predicted any impact would be less than that of concepts such as the double diffuser and the blown diffuser. Although the device, which has been given the green light by the FIA, has been likened to the F-duct idea that was seen two years ago before being banned, it is a comparison Brawn rejects. "Obviously I'm not going to go into detail of what people are calling the F-duct - I'm surprised they're calling it that because I'm not quite sure what it means," he said. "We have an interesting system on the car and it's not complicated at all. I'm sure other teams are looking at it and they need to decide if it's worthwhile or not. "But it's not of the same order of magnitude as, let's say, the diffuser concepts we had or even the exhaust concepts the cars ran the last few years. "It's obviously helpful and that's why we're doing it, but it's not a massive performance gain," he added.

Innovation

Even if the development does not prove a 'game changer', Brawn said such concepts were as much a part of F1 as star names such as Michael Schumacher, who set the fastest time for Mercedes in the second session. "It's great for Formula 1 because for me the magic of Formula 1 is not just the drivers, it's the technology, it's the engineering, it's the innovation," he enthused. "When I hear these people talking that we need to have standard cars, they miss the whole point of Formula 1, which is the magic of everything that goes on in Formula 1. "We've got drivers out there, World Champions, who are perhaps not in the best car at the moment and that's a story - that's a great aspect of Formula 1: that there are World Champions in much better cars and the teams without the good cars have to fix their problems and try and improve. "That's why Formula 1 is so fascinating and appealing to fans and enthusiasts." Brawn also played down the presence of Schumacher at the top of the timesheets in P2, on a day when changeable weather conditions meant only limited running on slick tyres. "It's certainly better than being at the back," he said. "The only reason I qualify it is that we've got no idea what people are running on fuel, we've had little windows of running on the dry. "Our cars were doing different things to try and get some information for tomorrow, because tomorrow we've got one hour of timed practice before we have to go to qualifying."