James Allison: « No team is ashamed to copy its rivals »
A hotbed of technical innovations and development, Formula 1 is an environment where James Allison, the technical director at Lotus, acknowledges that it's beneficial to be inspired by the best of what others do, and where you must accept that others will be inspired by the best of what you do.
Since the ban on blown diffusers and the restrictions surrounding the use of exhaust gases to blow into the diffuser, teams have been full of ingenuity in finding solutions to recover some of the lost downforce as regulatory clarifications have been made. Today, in addition to Coanda effect exhausts, teams are increasingly focusing on the development of passive drag reduction systems, which were a major storyline for Lotus last season.
Logically, many teams have focused on this system, starting with Mercedes at the end of the 2012 season, followed today by Sauber and Red Bull. In early February, Adrian Newey acknowledged that this system was certainly an interesting area while admitting that it still needed to be explored.
Instigator of this device, James Allison, the technical director of the Lotus team, understands more than anyone the potential as well as the challenges it represents in terms of development: « As everyone knows, we experimented with this concept last year but decided not to use it outside of free practice sessions. It’s an incredibly complex system and a real challenge to make it work correctly. But if we succeed, it could bring very enticing benefits. We conducted intermediate work on it during the last tests and will do the same this week. However, I do not expect it to be fully operational before the first race. We hope to have made substantial progress by leaving Barcelona and to see it debut in races later in the year. »
The Briton is not offended that the system has since been copied by some teams, considering it logical in Formula 1 to draw inspiration from potential sources of performance gains, just as Lotus did by adopting Red Bull-type Coanda exhausts on its Lotus E21 this season. No team is ashamed to copy developments initiated by their rivals if they feel they can gain an advantage. Many photographers work in the pit lane during tests and races. One way they make a living is by taking images of the details of the cars and offering them to the technical departments of each team. Teams then compare these images from race to race and team to team, which allows them to pursue the development line that emerges. If it becomes public knowledge that another team has discovered something clever, it’s therefore a good idea to start exploring your own interpretation as quickly as possible. That being said, a team that relies solely on this principle of operation wouldn’t get very far. The majority of your concepts and detailed designs must be homemade to stand a chance of being competitive.
