McLaren, Mercedes GP and at least two other teams have to make modifications to their diffuser prior to the Australian GP. The FIA is clamping down on teams exploiting the grey areas of the device, ironically Mercedes being one of these teams, in their former guise (Brawn) effetely introduced & won the championship with the same device.
This I feel is outrageous, all the development that went on through the winter and the FIA feel that now they should implement an embargo against innovative use of the said device. The FIA constantly talk of cost reductions in F1, all that I can see in this situation is that now these four teams will have to spend unnecessary money now to modify these cars.
I believe it is the FIA that is manufacturing escalated spending in F1. For example, two seasons in a row now all the teams have had to develop a car from scratch. 2009, full technical overhaul of the regulation, 2010, ban on in-race refuelling. This meant that both seasons none of the teams could bring an evolution of their respective cars, spending tens of millions on development of new machinery.
McLaren, Mercedes GP & Renault along with Force India will have to make these modifications prior to attending Albert park, with the later of those teams holding a significantly smaller budget than the prior three, we will all see who will be hit hardest. This is a team that was just showing real promise in there motor-sport campaign.
