Head: Jaguar, Not Ferrari Caused BAR's Wing Ban
Saturday April 24th, 2004
By Biranit Goren
Ferrari did not complain to the FIA about BAR's rear wing and was not involved in the FIA's decision to ban the 'shark fin' elements that appeared on the BAR-Honda and Williams cars in Bahrain three weeks ago.
Atlas F1 reported yesterday that BAR were forced to change their rear wings following a complaint to the FIA which the British team said was made by Ferrari. However, the Italian team said today they had nothing to do with the FIA's decision and a team spokesman told Atlas F1 they were not in any discussion with the governing body over the rear wing issue.
Asked by Atlas F1 to clarify the matter, BAR's technical director Geoff Willis said: "we are never told who made a complaint. We assumed it was Ferrari."
However, Williams's technical director Patrick Head told Atlas F1 the 'shark fins' were in fact made illegal following a query by Jaguar in the technical working group last week. Head elaborated: "BAR had some sort of elements that went from the main plane to the flap and we tried them in the wind tunnel as well and they seemed to be beneficial, so we had them on our car in Bahrain.
"Then [FIA technical delegate] Charlie [Whiting] made a clarification about another device which had been on the BAR at a test, which they thought would allow them to use the turning vane from last year. Along with a number of other teams, we asked Charlie, 'are you going to accept that as legal, because if you are we're going to make that as well.'
"So Charlie came out with a clarification, and at the last technical working group, which took place after Bahrain, Ian Pocock [director of engineering] from Jaguar said [to Charlie], 'well your statement about what you define as a wing element also excludes the BAR dividers [shark fins]' - which we'd added at the previous race.
"So we said to Charlie, what's your view? And he said he will make a decision at Imola, and on Thursday he said 'no, you can't run them'. We had already prepared four wings without them on, so we just ran the ones without them rather than the ones with."
BG: BAR were under the impression that it was actually Ferrari that made the complaint. From what you're saying, Ferrari had nothing to do with it?
Head: "No, it was Jaguar at the last [technical working group], and Gary Savage from BAR was at that meeting, as was I. It was [Jaguar's] Ian Pocock that held Charlie's response to the BAR wing with the turning vane and its angled dividers between, and Ian said, 'Charlie, our interpretation of your method by which you say that's illegal, also means that these dividing elements are illegal.' And Charlie said, 'yes, you could be right. We'll look into that and give you an answer on the Thursday before Imola.'
"So we pulled four wings off the truck as it left [for Imola] - I think the technical working group meeting was last Friday and the truck left on Saturday morning, so Friday evening we took four wings off and unbonded those pieces and came down here with them so that we could go either way."
BAR had altered the shape of the 'shark fin' elements prior to Friday's first free practice at Imola to comply with Whiting's instructions, and Honda Racing's vice president Otmar Szafnauer said yesterday the change made a measureable difference in performance. Despite that, the team scored their first pole position today, when Jenson Button beat World Champion Michael Schumacher by a quarter of a second. |
