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Red Bull Hurt By Blown Diffuser Ban

Red Bull Racing's chief technical director Adrian Newey has put his team's failure to recapture its dominant form from last year down to the winter rule changes designed to outlaw exhaust blown diffusers.

Red Bull was the first team to harness the concept two years ago and last year optimised it to a degree that allowed it to dominate the Drivers and the Constructors Championship. Despite working to recreate such an effect in a limited way, which led to a rules clarification that forced Red Bull's Renault engine partner to modify engine maps designed to extract the most downforce available from blowing exhaust gases at aero-profiled brake ducts, the Red Bull Racing team has only won three times so far in 2012.

Last year Red Bull was 103 points clear after eleven races, now the team is leading the Constructors Championship after eleven races by 53 points.

Speaking to Autosport, Newey said: "It's pretty much as we feared before the season started. Having explored exhaust blowing technology quite heavily for two seasons and then having that taken away together with other changes like the front wing flexibility test rules, hurt us quite a lot. Probably it hurt us more than other people because we had been exploiting it for longer. It has taken a while to try to understand what we need to do and to recover."

The chief technical director also hinted that Red Bull has yet to re-adapt its car to the engine mapping rule change introduced ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix at the end of July.

While German World Champion Vettel finished fourth at the Hungaroring, he struggled to match the race pace of the Lotuses and the McLarens and the car was flattered by running on fresher rubber relative to the top three late in the race.

"We've been working with Renault and were suddenly faced with a clarification that was a different interpretation to what we thought we were operating to. That's where we are and we've got to go back and have a fresh look," Newey commented.

Sky 4 Energy

2024 F1 Championship Standings (as of March 24)

PDriverTeamPoints
1Max VerstappenRed Bull51
2Charles LeclercFerrari47
3Sergio PerezRed Bull46
4Carlos SainzFerrari40
5Oscar PiastriMcLaren28
6Lando NorrisMcLaren27
7George RussellMercedes18
8Fernando AlonsoAston Martin16
9Lance StrollAston Martin9
10Lewis HamiltonMercedes8
11Oliver BearmanFerrari6
12Yuki TsunodaRB6
13Nico HülkenbergHaas3
14Kevin MagnussenHaas1
15Alexander AlbonWilliams0
16Daniel RicciardoRB0
17Esteban OconAlpine0
18Pierre GaslyAlpine0
19Valtteri BottasKick Sauber0
20Logan SargeantWilliams0
21Zhou GuanyuKick Sauber0
PTeamPoints
1Oracle Red Bull Racing97
         Poles: 3       Sprint wins: 0       GP wins: 2
2Scuderia Ferrari93
         Poles: 0       Sprint wins: 0       GP wins: 1
3McLaren F1 Team55
         Poles: 0       Sprint wins: 0       GP wins: 0
4Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team26
         Poles: 0       Sprint wins: 0       GP wins: 0
5Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team25
         Poles: 0       Sprint wins: 0       GP wins: 0
6Visa Cash App RB F1 Team6
         Poles: 0       Sprint wins: 0       GP wins: 0
7MoneyGram Haas F1 Team4
         Poles: 0       Sprint wins: 0       GP wins: 0
8Williams Racing0
         Poles: 0       Sprint wins: 0       GP wins: 0
9BWT Alpine F1 Team0
         Poles: 0       Sprint wins: 0       GP wins: 0
10Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber0
         Poles: 0       Sprint wins: 0       GP wins: 0

2024 MotoGP Championship Standings (as of March 24)

PRiderTeamPoints
1Jorge MartinPramac Racing60
2Brad BinderRed Bull KTM42
3Enea BastianiniDucati Lenovo39
4Francesco BagnaiaDucati Lenovo37
5Pedro AcostaGASGAS Tech328
6Marc MarquezGresini Racing27
7Aleix EspargaroAprilia Racing25
8Maverick ViñalesAprilia Racing19
9Jack MillerRed Bull KTM16
10Fabio Di GiannantonioPertamina Enduro VR4615
11Fabio QuartararoMonster Energy Yamaha15
12Alex MarquezGresini Racing13
13Marco BezzecchiPertamina Enduro VR4612
14Miguel OliveiraTrackhouse Racing8
15Joan MirRepsol Honda7
16Johann ZarcoLCR Honda Castrol5
17Augusto FernandezGASGAS Tech35
18Alex RinsMonster Energy Yamaha3
19Takaaki NakagamiLCR Honda Idemitsu2
20Franco MorbidelliPramac Racing0
21Luca MariniRepsol Honda0
22Raul FernandezTrackhouse Racing0
PTeamPoints
1Ducati Lenovo Team76
         Poles: 1       Sprint wins: 0       GP wins: 1
2Prima Pramac Racing60
         Poles: 1       Sprint wins: 1       GP wins: 1
3Red Bull KTM Factory Racing58
         Poles: 0       Sprint wins: 0       GP wins: 0
4Aprilia Racing44
         Poles: 0       Sprint wins: 1       GP wins: 0
5Gresini Racing MotoGP40
         Poles: 0       Sprint wins: 0       GP wins: 0
6Red Bull GASGAS Tech333
         Poles: 0       Sprint wins: 0       GP wins: 0
7Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team27
         Poles: 0       Sprint wins: 0       GP wins: 0
8Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP18
         Poles: 0       Sprint wins: 0       GP wins: 0
9Trackhouse Racing8
         Poles: 0       Sprint wins: 0       GP wins: 0
10Repsol Honda Team7
         Poles: 0       Sprint wins: 0       GP wins: 0
11LCR Honda Team7
         Poles: 0       Sprint wins: 0       GP wins: 0