Shortly after Red Bull raced their RB7 in testing, several teams have started to copy its exhaust design, starting from rivals Ferrari. Later on, Williams, Sauber and Mercedes GP have also gone for similar exhausts, while McLaren Mercedes themselves ditched their innovative and complex 'octopus' like system to join the club.
Needless to say, the best effect the new system has had in the past week was on the McLaren MP4-26, a car that struggled with performance in testing, yet jumped right behind Red Bull in both qualifying and race in Australia.
“We think it (the exhaust) works for us,” said Newey yesterday, while in London receiving the Segrave Trophy for his achievements in F1 over the years. “It seems it also works for McLaren. It's a form of flattery but it's a bit of a pain if they then beat you with it,” he added.
Additionally, Newey also echoed the comments of Red Bull's team principal Christian Horner, who told the media after the Australian Grand Prix that the RB7 will have KERS incorporated as soon as possible, in Malaysia. The designer admitted that the team did not run the unit in Melbourne due to an element that gave the mechanics some head aches prior to the Saturday running.
“We will have it from now on,” said Newey, according to UK's Express. “It was actually a relatively trivial problem but KERS is a complicated system, we have been trying to develop the element of it that has been giving us a bit of trouble ourselves and we're not experts in that field.”
Google News