Briatore unhappy with diffuser rules

Renault boss Flavio Briatore has complained that rival teams are flouting the spirit of Formula 1’s rules with controversial diffuser designs – and warned that his team may lodge an official protest at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
Williams and Toyota raised eyebrows when they unveiled their 2009 cars, which use creative shaping of the rear crash structure to effectively extend the diffuser’s central section beyond the new 175mm height limit, thereby generating more rear downforce.
The governing FIA has provisionally declared the designs legal, with president Max Mosley admitting last month that they cleverly exploited a loophole in the regulations.
Briatore, however, believes the designs drive a coach and horses through the rule book and has called on the FIA to clarify the situation.
“F1 must have rules that apply equally to everybody,” he was quoted as saying by Gazzetta dello Sport.
“It’s not fair that certain diffusers are made one way and others in another way, because I don’t think it’s right that every team has its own rule book.
“It seems that there are two sets of regulations: those which allow certain teams to have a diffuser made in a certain way that is forbidden to others because they consider it illegal.
“That’s not what we expect.
“We want black and white rules that are the same for everybody.”
Briatore said Renault did not rule out lodging a protest in Melbourne.
“We will see, because at least three teams are not respecting the regulations,” he said.
The Renault boss fears his team may be disadvantaged in the same way as it was last year when it failed to capitalise on loopholes in the engine regulations.
“I wouldn’t want it to end up like it did with the engine freeze, where we respected it and found ourselves 50 horsepower down on the others,” he said.
“This is the same story.”
Briatore feels F1 already risks confusing and alienating the public with Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems that will not be used by all teams.
“We will go to Australia with some cars having KERS and others that don’t have it and that is already difficult for the public to understand,” he said.