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[What's Burning?]

The regulation calls for adjustments REQUIRING tools to adjust the ride height, let's not overlook that point.

[stonemonkey]

The regulation calls for adjustments REQUIREING tools to adjust the ride height, let's not overlook that point.

Horner may consider a thimble to be a tool.

When asked why, if the regulations state that tools must be used, the team had a system that allowed settings to be changed manually, Horner said: "There are a lot of parts that are changed manually on the car, but a tool is used. The suspension has never been changed in parc ferme. Never.

Makes me wonder if they've found a way around the wording of the rules regarding parc ferme.

[stonemonkey]

For qualifying today an FIA inspector conspicuously put FIA stickers on the side of the Red Bull chassis, underlining how the team is under the microscope at the moment.

So maybe not some sort of anti-tamper but still not normal.

[LRW]

Thing is. Are we just overly suspicious because its RedBull, and with everything else that has gone on recently, are we deciding guilty before proven innocent, just because of previous misdemeanors??

Personally I would love the sport to have another huge scandal, as it really just mixes things up, and if its a scandal that doesn't involve McLaren, then even better.

And let's face it, you can't really count yourself as a top tier team unless youve been caught up in a scandal, or caught cheating.

[Hammer278]

Always a good thing to have Redbull being watched and scrutinized through the season.

Anyway, Lewis' biggest threat to the WDC is Alonso and it Alonso's to lose even at this halfway stage. McLaren have already f*cked around too much for 1 season and it's cost them. Lewis needs to win as many as he can this year and consider his options at the end of the season.

[FerrariFan63]

Always a good thing to have Redbull being watched and scrutinized through the season.

Anyway, Lewis' biggest threat to the WDC is Alonso and it Alonso's to lose even at this halfway stage. McLaren have already f*cked around too much for 1 season and it's cost them. Lewis needs to win as many as he can this year and consider his options at the end of the season.

If Red Bull slow down because the FIA thinks they have over-done the brinksmanship concerning the regulations, then this could go both ways. If Red Bull is winning, and McLaren and Ferrari are following, then a fast Red Bull car advantages Ferrari relative to McLaren. But if Red Bull are fast, but Red Bull don't beat the McLarens, then the Red Bulls gets in between the McLarens and the Ferraris and help McLaren.

But we mustn't forget that it's Webber who is second place in the championship, and if Red Bull are slowed by clarifications, that obviously helps Alonso in comparison to Webber.

And of course this is all based on the current speeds we see in Hungary where it appears that McLaren have taken a big step forward and are considerably faster than other teams. It could be a matter of the track suiting their car. However at Monaco, another twisty and tight track, McLaren didn't do well at all. So it appears that in the swings and roundabouts of development, Ferrari have fallen behind a bit and need to bring some significant upgrades to the car.

[FerrariFan63]

The regulation calls for adjustments REQUIRING tools to adjust the ride height, let's not overlook that point.

Maybe Red Bull specifically hired a mechanic with a prosthetic hand to get around this rule.

[What's Burning?]

The regulation calls for adjustments REQUIRING tools to adjust the ride height, let's not overlook that point.

Maybe Red Bull specifically hired a mechanic with a prosthetic hand to get around this rule.

Or a monkey with a prehensile tail.

[FerrariFan63]

In Vettel's hands, the RB looked suitably quick during the race. I don't think the engine map changes have hurt them much.

[f1usa]

The regulation calls for adjustments REQUIREING tools to adjust the ride height, let's not overlook that point.

Horner may consider a thimble to be a tool.

When asked why, if the regulations state that tools must be used, the team had a system that allowed settings to be changed manually, Horner said: "There are a lot of parts that are changed manually on the car, but a tool is used. The suspension has never been changed in parc ferme. Never.

Makes me wonder if they've found a way around the wording of the rules regarding parc ferme.

Horner is a tool............maybe he thought the regulation that calls for tools to make ride-height adjustments was an insult leveled at his mechanics so he made the ride-height adjustment himself.

[NocturnalTendencies]

Hmmm, if Red Bull did find a way to lower their cars more than normal for qualifying in an effort to land P1/P2 and then clandestinely raise the ride height for the race to compensate for fuel loads; that’s sneaky but definitely out of the box thinking.

[What's Burning?]

Hmmm, if Red Bull did find a way to lower their cars more than normal for qualifying in an effort to land P1/P2 and then clandestinely raise the ride height for the race to compensate for fuel loads; that’s sneaky but definitely out of the box thinking.

...and it would be illegal so Red Bull would not do it according to Horner.

[NocturnalTendencies]

Hmmm, if Red Bull did find a way to lower their cars more than normal for qualifying in an effort to land P1/P2 and then clandestinely raise the ride height for the race to compensate for fuel loads; that’s sneaky but definitely out of the box thinking.

...and it would be illegal so Red Bull would not do it according to Horner.

I suspect you're not a Horner fan. These "rules" have always been a lightning rod for engineers to skirt around as we all know, quite the Chess game. Cheers

[spankyham]

Hmmm, if Red Bull did find a way to lower their cars more than normal for qualifying in an effort to land P1/P2 and then clandestinely raise the ride height for the race to compensate for fuel loads; that’s sneaky but definitely out of the box thinking.

...and it would be illegal so Red Bull would not do it according to Horner.

I suspect you're not a Horner fan. These "rules" have always been a lightning rod for engineers to skirt around as we all know, quite the Chess game. Cheers

I'd tend to disagree with you on this one.

There are times when engineers are doing their creative jobs by looking for ways to stick to the rules, but achieve an unexpected result. Consider McLaren's floor this year (well, at least up to China), they technically did not break any rule with the floor as presented.

That is entirely different to deliberately breaking a rule. A good example here was back in the 90's when Benetton were caught with fuel rigs missing a compulsory filter which allowed fuel to flow faster during refueling. There was nothing clever or smart about that, there was no interpretations going on there - they were outright cheating.

[What's Burning?]

There is a distinct difference between a clever interpretation of rules and a clear and intentional breach of a rule (otherwise known as cheating).

Por ejemplo... Red Bull's interpretation of the engine mapping to gain an advantage and blow the diffuser with the exhaust overrun, is a clever interpretation of the rules, not cheating, consequently the rules were clarified.

In the case of Red Bull adjusting the ride height while the car was in parc ferme because they could adjust the ride height without tools while no one was looking... (or not looking because since they were not using tools they couldn't possibly be adjusting the ride height because the rules say you needed a tool to do that)... That would be cheating.

But since that would be cheating, Horner clearly said Red Bull would never do that to gain an advantage and have Sebastian Vettel fly off during the first few laps of a race and be uncatchable and way outside of the DRS zone because their car handled so much better than everyone else while under a heavy fuel load.

We know they weren't cheating but let's see how Red Bull performs the rest of the season...