Blown Diffuser

Watching FP3, there was quite a bit of excitement and talk about Charlie Whiting's comments in regard to the off-throttle exhaust blown diffusers currently employed by most teams, and the fact that Virgin and Hispania pulled theirs for the race. The theory being that they could object and state that other teams ran illegal cars. Of course, I'm sure common sense would have prevailed, and the other participants allowed to continue because writing new engine maps and removal of a powerfully fundamental tool like this cannot happen over a weekend.

My point is, if we are to see these devices banned, fist of all is it possible? Teams will of course be very reluctant to allow outside scrutineers to access such sensitive areas of their cars performance, and have highly secretive engine maps as common knowledge. So without doing this, how do you police a ban? Secondly if such a ban were to come in, when would it be enforced by, how long is enough time for sufficient re-deisgn and will teams get a say in this? Finally, and possibly most importantly, how will it effect the aerodynamic efficiency of the Red Bull? They, being the pioneers of the technology, are the current masters of it, and it is thought to be a significant contributor to their outstanding qualifying-pace, and consequent differential to race-pace. Could removal of this tool shape-up the rest of the season, and be a significant factor in deciding the 2011 WDC. For the sake of the competition, I hope so.

In addition to this, I've just read that Colin Kolles (Hispania TP) is planning a protest ahead of use of this technology at Monaco.