F1: Specification argument diffused

The stewards at Melbourne have made the first important decision of the race weekend. At today's scrutineering, they receieved official complaints by Red Bull, Renault and - no surprise here - Ferrari that BrawnGP, Toyota and Williams were planning to race illegal cars on Sunday.

No, said the stewards: Radovan Novak, Steve Chopping and Olafur Gudmundsson listened to argument for six hours - and this evening told the teams that the devices were legal and passed for racing on Sunday.

Red Bull's Helmut Marko was widely quoted as having said "Seven teams are certain it's illegal." But only three made a complaint.

Marko was also quoted as saying that Red Bull and Renault had wanted to install something similar last year but were rejected by the FIA; and as claiming that the double diffuser "guarantees half a tenth per lap." In a sport where thousanths of a second matter, over a full race distance of approximately 70 laps, that would mean a three and a half second advantage. Some media have taken that figure, and the surprising performance of the new BrawnGP team, combined the two and speculated that the Brawn cars could find themselves lapping half of the field in Melbourne. Whilst that is unlikely, it may mean that the three cars using the concept should stand a chance of putting one of their cars on pole: something that would upset the established order of things more than a little.

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