Ferrari Will Take Longer to Copy McLaren Air System

Yesterday, we have reported to you that BMW Sauber-Ferrari are preparing a McLaren-type of air inlet, due to be implemented on the C29 from as early as the Australian Grand Prix. When asked about it, the team's technical director Willy Rampf did not deny that his team is working on such a device, and told the reporters to ask him on Friday about debuting it in Australia.

As it was pretty clear that, once the FIA would clear the McLaren design as legal, all the other teams would start a copying race in the series – as it is believed it adds some extra downforce in corners and also increases the speed in straight line. According to Finnish newspaper Turun Sanomat, it seems Ferrari have also started developing a similar device, despite looking at it as contravening the spirit of the rules.

“We are building a similar one, but we do not know if or when we will finish it,” said Ferrari designer Nikolas Tombazis, according to the aforementioned publication.

Mercedes GP have also started developing a similar device to McLaren's, but like Ferrari, they insisted a deadline has not been set for its fitting into the W01. As far as Sauber goes, it seems the reason why the Swiss team has been so quick in developing the knee-operated device is because Pedro de la Rosa, now a race driver for Sauber and formerly a test driver for McLaren, had plenty of knowledge about that when he was at Woking.

However, the Spaniard insisted the Sauber system is not very similar to McLaren's.

“I knew basically what they (McLaren) were thinking about, but this is our system. It is a different, Sauber system,” said De la Rosa, when talking to the Aussie reporters on Thursday.