nicolachew

McLaren have always said that wet conditions worked in their favour, but it'sgoing to take much more than a McLaren rain dance for the British team to climb their way back up the grid and try for a podium placing unless a rain dance can cause their cars to suddenly adapt to the newly-implemented blown diffuser ban overnight. McLaren is one of the 2 teams which has shown a significant drop in race pace after the FIA's ban on using blown diffusers took effect as of the Silverstone Grand Prix.

It was originally thought that Red Bull would suffer the most as technical director Adrian Newey built the RB7 around the diffuser technology so as to increase downforce and grip during races and complement the cars' KERS to produce the best possible result during qualifying. Ironically, Red Bull qualified P1 and P2 during Q3 and left everyone else behind in the dust - or rather, rain. The 2 teams which showed the most signs of struggling to adjust to the new ban are (in my point of view) McLaren (JB qualified P5 and LH P10 in Q3) and Renault (VP in P14 and NH in P16 in Q2), an enormous blow for McLaren especially, who are competing on their home track with an all-British driving duo. Wet conditions may favour them, but if they are unable to adjust to a 0.5-second-a-lap-slower strategy without the blown diffuser, their hopes of winning in their home GP may well be washed down the drain.