Although the RB5's pace at Shanghai left everybody open-mouthed, Australian Mark Webber insisted his team is still trailing Brawn GP and Toyota in terms of car's competitiveness. He pointed out that, in normal weather conditions and with the same amount of fuel in qualifying, the Brawns would have been untouchable once again.
“If you look at the fuel-corrected timings, taking into account the loads being carried by each car, the grid would have been Rubens Barrichello, Jenson Button, Jarno Trulli, Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber so clearly we have to keep improving,” said Webber to F1 broadcaster BBC.
“There's nothing to suggest a huge amount has changed since Malaysia when, in the dry, Brawn were a second faster than anyone else. That car is definitely strong and they are the team that is the benchmark for every team to try to close in on,” added the Australian.
Red Bull did not come to China with a revised rear diffuser, as it was the case with Renault and McLaren. However, technical director Adrian Newey did not travel to Shanghai last weekend, as he reportedly started focusing on the designing and development of a double-decker diffuser back at team's headquarters in Milton Keynes. According to the team's motorsport advisor Helmut Marko, the feature is planned to be ready by the Monaco Grand Prix.
Such an important aerodynamic change would lead, in Red Bull Racing's case, to the revision of the entire rear design of the car. This seems to be the main reason why Newey has set such a long time frame for the development of the “double diffuser”, as most teams are believed to debut their new designs (full versions, not interim ones) from as early as the Spanish Grand Prix.
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