Red Bull and Lotus may suffer as a result of the FIA’s recent clarification on engine mapping in 2013 – a practice which is highly beneficial if unregulated.
Both the Renault powered outfits are believed to have designed their exhaust systems with ‘off-throttle blowing’ in mind, despite the FIA clamping down on the act during the latter stages of 2012.
In effect, thanks to clever engine mapping, the driver can come off the throttle in a corner, but the engine still delivers 100% of its power, thus creating large amounts of exhaust gasses to improve downforce.
A technical directive was released in August of last year to stop the practice, with teams having to adopt a standard map from the four they used in the opening four races.
Ferrari’s engine boss Luca Marmorini believes this still stands, whereby they must use one of the four maps from last season in 2013. He was quoted as saying: “Everything remains the same.”
Remi Taffin, his counterpart at Renault Sport F1, thinks differently and believes they can start from scratch by running four maps in the opening four races, then electing to choose one of those for the remaining 15.
“The directive referred exclusively to last year,” he added.
The governing body however, it seems, has agreed with Ferrari’s stance and therefore both Red Bull and Lotus may be forced to adapt their exhaust systems as it’s likely they have been designed to fully utilise the ‘illegal’ practice.
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