The buoyant Red Bull team have ruled out introducing their own double-decker diffuser until the Monaco GP at the earliest, as Adrian Newey gets his boffin-like head around the challenges facing the team to redesign their unique rear end.
After the team took their maiden GP win with a 1-2 finish in Shanghai last weekend, Adrian Newey was questioned as to when the team will be able to make a further step forwards with their own take on the contentious, but legal, double-decker system. As predicted, the technical bod confirmed that the pullrod suspension system of the RB5 will cause extra problems for the team and delay the introduction of the new diffuser. "As has been speculated, given the design of RB5, it's not the easiest task getting it to fit the car and while we work on this one item, we also need to keep working on the general development of the car, to ensure we don't fall behind in other areas," Newey admitted glumly, adding that: "The unique feature of the Red Bull cars is the pullrod rear suspension, which is a good solution when you don't have a double-diffuser. But getting it to work with the diffuser will be more difficult. We won't have a double-diffuser before Monaco."
The result in China has proved the competitiveness of Newey's latest design, particularly in wet conditions. But the team are still expected to be lagging behind Brawn GP should it actually stay dry for once in Bahrain this weekend.
Newey was not in China for the team's win, as he began the lengthy task of modifying the complex derrière of the RB5 for the new system. The double-decker diffuser styles are rumoured to be worth as much as half a second per lap, which would likely push the Red Bull's performance level right to the front of the grid if true.
Newey, though, refused to be drawn on how much an impact the new changes would have. "There is no doubt that a double-diffuser does give performance. How much performance depends on how you interpret the regulations and how you adapt it to suit your own car, so that some teams will get more out of it than others. It is worth doing for everyone on the grid. Our challenge is to adapt one to work on our car."
Meanwhile, in other Red Bull news, team oligarch Dietrich Mateschitz has claimed that the team now has the best line up on the grid, and also issued a "hands off" warning to rival teams regarding Sebastian "The new Schumacher(TM)" Vettel.
"Besides Ferrari, we have with Vettel and Webber absolutely the strongest driver pairing in the field," Mateschitz grinned smugly, adding that: "At the moment Sebastian is not for sale."
His comments follow rotund Mercedes boss Norbert Haug saying that he would love to have the German in a McLaren "some day". Vettel is only under contract until 2010, but Red Bull do have the first option on his services beyond then.
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