Force India dont believe unanimous agreement will be found in order to delay the impeding ban on FRIC (front to rear inter-connected) suspension.
Otmar Szafnauer, Force India’s chief operating officer, believes a fully-developed system – like that being run by Mercedes – could give an advantage of over half a second per lap.
He therefore believes that smallers teams which aren’t running it or have a simplified version will back the immediate ban as it could see them take a step closer to their rivals.
“It can make a significant difference, it can be half a second a lap if not more depending on if you’ve developed the entire car around it over the winter and in the wind tunnel,” he said. “If that’s the case it can make a significant difference.
“It varies from team to team, it varies on how quickly you’ve developed it and how integral it is. For some teams it might mean more if they take it off than others.”
Speaking about Force India’s approach to the ban, he said the team would support a majority vote but doesn’t believe agreement will be found to delay the ban until 2015.
“We’ll do what the majority want,” he said. “But it’s not about majority, it’s about unanimity. I think the likelyhood of unanimous agreement is zero.
“There will be people out there that will say if the FIA think it should be banned then let’s do that.”
When asked if Force India will protest a team running it, he responded: “It depends if we’re running it or not.”
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