Following waves in the media started off by Renault's forward-exiting exhausts – that directs part of the exhaust gases underneath the car and improves downforce – several other teams hinted they might try the innovation for themselves, with McLaren Mercedes already presenting a similar such design of their own.
Ferrari, on the other hand, have been much more conservative in terms of car design for the 2011 season and, judging by the recent comments made by their technical mastermind Aldo Costa, the Scuderia are unlikely to try and copy the Renault exhaust design this season. Apart from the fact that its positive effects are yet to show, the system is quite hard to implement, explains the Italian official.
“I would say so, yes,” said Costa when asked if trying to copy the design from Renault would be hard. “The exhaust of Renault needs to be integrated with the chassis, thinking twice about the cooling and the housing of the electronic boxes.”
According to Costa, the reason why so many teams come up with these futuristic designs for their F1 challengers is the constant change in regulations set up by the International Automobile Federation (FIA).
“For sure it has something to do with the major regulation reforms of 2009. Everyone has worked with new concepts. As long as the rules are not stable, we will see many innovations. Only when the rules are the same for three, four years will we be back to another optimization phase,” he concluded.
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