After passing scrutineering in Bahrain, Spain and Monaco, suddenly the “fully enclosed holes” in the floor at the rear of the RB8 chassis is illegal and Red Bull will need to revise the floor design before the Canadian Grand Prix in a weeks time. This indicates to me that the FIA scrutineers and technical delegates have a fundamental lack of understanding of the technical regulations!
Red Bull have not been fined or penalised points for the infringement of the technical regulations; and rightfully so in my opinion. Red Bull consistently checked the RB8’s legality with the FIA and passed every scrutineering test. Being stripped of the points earned in the previous three Grand Prix’ would have been grossly unfair and would make a complete mockery of the sport and it’s rules.
On the forum that I moderate, I have heard many suggestions that if it were McLaren that were in contravention of the technical regulations, they would have had points deducted, I’m thinking sour grapes from certain McLaren fans to be honest. When McLaren got stripped of their 2007 points, it was a very different situation, the Woking based team were guilty of being in possession of Ferrari technical information, espionage is very different from being in breach of technical rules.
Looking forward to the Canadian Grand Prix next weekend, it’s impossible to predict who will win! Will we have a seventh different driver win this season and/or will we see a sixth new team win? will Canada be the first win for the Lotus team? I would say that Mercedes have a good chance of winning at the Circuit de Gilles Villeneuve with their double DRS system, McLaren traditionally go well in Canada but have lost ground in the development race to Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari since the season opener in Australia. The way things are going so far in 2012; I wouldn’t be surprised to see Sauber take their maiden victory given that the C31 generally looks after it’s tyre very well!