Sounds good to me. Everybody else better get cracking. Here's an article from autosport about how Ferrari started working on a complete redesign.

Ferrari 'forced' to re-develop F60 design

By Simon Strang Wednesday, April 15th 2009, 11:57 GMT

Ferrari has indicated that it will be forced to 'fundamentally' change the design of its F60 challenger, following the FIA International Court of Appeal's decision to reject a protest by several teams over the diffusers used by Brawn GP, Toyota and Williams.

The ICA's verdict, announced on Wednesday, is a blow to those teams that did not pursue the design concept when they created their 2009 cars - as it is widely accepted that the double-decker diffusers have brought a performance advantage.

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen suggested last week that the diffuser decision would be vital for the outcome of the world title - with his team likely to have to wait for several races before being able to fit a suitable one to their car.

Team principal Stefano Domenicali added in a statement that he was waiting to hear the reasoning behind the decision, but said that Ferrari would now invest time and money into creating a solution for its cars.

"Unfortunately this decision forces us to intervene on fundamental areas of the car's design in order to be able to compete on an equal footing with some of the teams from a point of view of the technical regulations, and that will take time and money," said Domenicali.

"We will now double our efforts to get the team back to the highest level of competitivity."

 

Sounds like Ferrari won't be ready for a few races. I can't help but think that they already started redevelopment weeks ago, though. Think about it: Last week they shuffled their team and sent the top pit manager back the Maranello to save the competitiveness of the car. But I get the impression that you can't just simply swap out one diffuser design for another; it seems like each design "fundamentally" alters the structure of the car in some way. That means almost a complete redesign mid season!!!! So it could be another race or too before they are up to speed. And if Brawn runs away with podium after poduim they will be very hard to catch. Of course, this could all be Ferrari bluffing and we could see a DD diffuser on the F60 at practice tomorrow night.

 

I got one of each of the trio team drivers on my squad.

But this is great news.

 

I'd really like to believe that the bigger teams with the resources to do so have developed and tested (at least on the computer) a new diffuser that will be ready to be put in place starting this weekend. It might not be optimized, but I'm sure it won't take more than a race or two before McLaren and Ferrari are really bringing the fight to Brawn.

 

I think it'll be at Catalunya when the bigger teams break out the new diffusers.

 

I'm betting that the big teams have developed the diffusers just in case and will be running with them installed this week.

 

There has been a slight uptick in diffuser driver values in the Fantasy League since the ruling became official but not anything like I thought it would be. Maybe everyone already owns them.

Ferrari and McLaren have a double decker diffuser I am sure. But it's like any other major league sport - how it performs under simulated conditions, no matter how accurate, cannot fully predict how it will perform in an actual race. There are still struggles ahead for the big boys. But look for a major jump in performance starting this week.

 

Does everybody really think the diffusers are the answer to Ferrari and McLarens problem?

 

Nope. I think it is a small (but vital) piece of the aero issue with the new cars. Sure they can just slap something on, but I guarantee you it'll only show marginal improvements over current downforce, and by extension traction. They have to rework the aero bits ahead as well to maximize the efficiency of the volume AND flow of the air transiting that piece. As you get more out of the diffuser, it requires changes to the rear airfoil to compensate/complement, on and on.

As Dana mentioned before, the simulators will get them most of the way, but without actual track time, it's gonna be tough.

 

Exactly.

Sure there will be improvements, but with Mclaren, their car ain't handling well, and thats got nothing to do with the diffuser.

And Ferrari has bigger problems.