MAY 6, 2006

Is anyone cheating in Formula 1?

The FIA press conference yesterday saw five technical directors assembled for the F1 media to grill but they seemed rather reticent when it came to the question of flexible wings: Ferrari's Ross Brawn, Red Bull's Mark Smith, Toyota's Pascal Vasselon and BMW Sauber's Willi Rampf all declined to answer a question as to whether there was any scientific evidence to suggest that any team had raced flexible wings or flexible underfloors this year.

The only man willing to discuss it was Honda's Geoff Willis.

"That question is very difficult," said Willis. "There's lots of data you can look at to make an estimate to see if someone is exploiting the regulations to their advantage - and to more than what is strictly permissible. It's hard to say, but what we have to do is make everybody 100% sure of the regulations. If we have a suspicion or an idea on how we might do it, then we would put our ideas to Charlie Whiting and so would all the other teams I think. To answer your question directly, and in terms of what evidence you would look for, you'd have to look for a speed variation from speeds squared. In the past you could see characteristics of cars where the variation was, let's say, non-linear drag characteristics."