Red Bull Racing designer Adrian Newey has insisted that the intriguing 'Neweyduct' in the stepped nose of the Red Bull RB8 is simply an aid for driver cooling purposes, despite the flurry of speculation over the car's odd blemish.
The duct in the stepped nose of the Red Bull was the subject of intrigued speculation after the launch of Red Bull's latest challenger.
Suggestions for the purpose of the ducts has ranged from a form of KERS cooling through to a new take on a blown diffuser, after the use of exhaust gases to blow the rear of the car was banned.
But speaking to reporters on the opening day of testing in Jerez, Newey insisted that the small gaps in the bodywork were simply to help cool the driver.
"The slot in the nose is simply driver cooling," he was quoted as saying by the Autosport website.
"Traditionally the driver cooling slot is at the front of the nose, but really for styling as much as anything we moved it to where you now see it to break up the aesthetics of the ramp."
Newey lamented the overall look of the car's nose, with Red Bull joining in the trend of 'platypus-style' noses in 2012 in line with the FIA's new maximum height rules.
"It's a shame to have to come up with a solution that is not particularly attractive," he mused, "But ultimately performance has to come before aesthetics and this is no exception."
He also reiterated his thoughts from the car's launch that he was concerned the team might be adversely affected this year by the ban on blown diffusers.
"We could well be behind [the pace] as far as we know," he shrugged regarding the team's early form with their new car.
"We know what we have done over the winter but with things like the exhausts, front wings and other things there have been significant regulation changes. Where that leaves us is impossible to say."
He went on: "When double diffusers were banned at the end of the 2010, we were able to largely replace the effect that they had with the exhausts.
"This time around its' very difficult to replace the exhaust effect - we haven't managed to do it. Obviously, there is a re-optimisation to be done to the car.
"Whether we have done a better job on that than others is hard to know."
Red Bull began testing of the RB8 at the Jerez track on Tuesday, with Mark Webber in the car for the first day's work.
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