The FIA’s Charlie Whiting says he is happy with Renault’s engine ‘trick’ which cuts individual cylinders, causing the engine to backfire which in-turn creates extra exhaust gases.
Whilst the effect isn’t as beneficial is it would have been last season, now that exhaust-blown diffusers have been banned, such a concept remains beneficial.
Mercedes presented recorded audio of the Renault engine used in Red Bull’s RB8 to the FIA from the Australian Grand Prix, which it believes contravenes the technical regulations.
“There is no official protest by us,” said Mercedes competition vice-president Norbert Haug. “But there are some questions that we are asking the FIA.”
However Whiting has defended Renault and Red Bull, explaining that the regulations stipulate no more than four of the eight cylinders are cut, which is the case according to the FIA.
“Mercedes has presented us with some audio analysis,” confirmed Whiting in Sepang. “It’s quite complex but the upshot is, they say it shows that Red Bull are cutting more than four cylinders, which you are not allowed to do.
“Actually, the cut pattern is not determined, so you can cut as many cylinders in whatever order you like. We’ve got the data and we can see quite clearly that there are four cylinders being injected, four cylinders firing and they are timed at the right time, so there’s every reason to suppose that there’s combustion going on.
“Moreover, the throttle opening at that point is not any more than it is normally, so if they are doing anything funny they are not opening the throttle any more, so it negates the arguments a lot. As far as we are concerned it’s entirely legal because they are not cutting more than four cylinders, which is what the contention is.”
