Diffuser ban to cost Red Bull half a second

Red Bull's motorsport advisor Helmut Marko has revealed that the team expect to lose half a second per lap at Silverstone when the ban on off-throttle blown diffusers takes effect

Speculation has been rife regarding how the ban will impact the teams, with Red Bull thought to be in danger of suffering the greatest loss.

Marko admits that the ban will cost the team but they are well prepared to deal with the changes.

"We expect to lose approximately 0.5 seconds per lap without the blown diffuser," he said.

"However, we made preparations to equalise this in terms of set-up and aero measures. We are optimistic that we will keep our performance level."

The 68-year-old is understandably annoyed at the FIA's decision to implement the ban halfway through the season.

"We would have understood if this was implemented at the end of the season like many other technical developments recently," he said.

"But to do this halfway through the season is a bit strange and not quite understandable," the Austrian added.

Source: Planet-F1

Ecclestone insists teams should 'get on with it'

F1 commercial rights holder Bernie Ecclestone has joined the group of people suggesting than the regulation banning team orders in the sport should be removed.

Eddie Jordan and Martin Brundle have both suggested that the change should be made after the incident involving Ferrari at the German Grand Prix, where Fernando Alonso was allowed to pass Felipe Massa for the lead.

The way in which the team went about swapping its drivers round in the race has led to much criticism in both the press and the paddock but Ecclestone said he felt it was up to individual teams to make the decision on how the approach racing.

“I must confess I would agree with anyone who thinks that,” he told the Daily Mail when asked if the law on team orders should be reviewed. “We make people call it a team. We say it's got to be a team. Both cars have to be exactly the same. The drivers wear the same overalls. Everybody has to look like a team - a team of people who are racing.

“I believe what people do when they are inside the team and how they run their team is up to them. Of course, if a team does something that's dangerous then they're going to be in trouble. Otherwise, get on with it.”

Source: Crash

No Swiss road ban for Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton will not be banned from Swiss roads.

Swiss road crash victims foundation RoadCross, backed by local politicians, called for the ban after Hamilton's girlfriend recently admitted in a celebrity magazine interview to sometimes driving with her knees.

Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger also joked that the pair would be banned if it emerged how fast they had driven in Switzerland, where Hamilton rents an apartment.

RoadCross asked the local attorney general to revoke Hamilton's driving license, also because the McLaren driver - arrested in March for dangerous driving in Melbourne - crashed in Switzerland after running a stop sign last year.

But German-language reports reveal that Geneva authorities have closed the case against the 2008 world champion due to a lack of evidence.

Source: Motorsport.com