» Another exhaust clampdown

The Formula 1 teams are to face a further tightening of the rules ahead of this weekend’s European Grand Prix, this time in the area of engine-mapping.

Ahead of the complete ban on the off-throttle use of ‘blown exhaust diffusers’ from next month’s British Grand Prix onwards, the sport’s governing body has instituted an immediate ban on ‘qualifying-mode’ engine mapping, in a bid to prevent teams from running engines in a ‘souped-up’ condition during qualifying to improve performance.

The FIA’s technical delegate has confirmed to the twelve Formula 1 teams that they may only use the same engine mapping in the race as the one that they used to qualified for the race.

One theory doing the rounds about Red Bull’s clear dominance of qualifying – in comparison to its less-dominant race pace – is that the Milton Keynes squad runs extreme fuel-burning engine maps in qualifying to boost qualifying performance.

[Image via LAT]