Mercedes will only reveal true 2010 diffuser at first race

[John S]

Makes you wonder how many others will hold things back for first race, or is this part of the mind games ahead of the season?

Mercedes GP will wait until the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix to bring its definitive 2010 diffuser onto its car, team principal Ross Brawn has revealed.

Although the German car manufacturer team is expected to bring a raft of aerodynamic improvements onto its car during Friday test at Barcelona, the final diffuser package will not be part of it.

When asked by Gazzetta dello Sport when the new diffuser would be fitted to the W01, Brawn said: "At the first grand prix in Bahrain."

Brawn acknowledged that his team's winter preparations were nowhere near as impressive as last season's, when his eponymous team dominated the final Barcelona test.

However, despite having struggled early on with getting front tyre temperatures up to the perfect operating window, he was far from concerned about the early performance.

"We knew those performances [from last year] couldn't be repeated," he said. "We can't yet say whether this car is a winner, but we know it's not bad.

By Jonathan Noble and Michele Lostia Autosport, Today

[Jericoke]

So they figure a diffuser doesn't need on track testing?  CFD/Windtunnel is enough?  If teams are happy introducing new parts at the first race, maybe we can cut back testing to a few shake downs.

I'm glad that Brawn isn't setting (public) expectations up to repeat 2009.

[cosworth151]

Maybe the testing revealed some problem with the design they were using. Saying that "We're not going to show our real diffuser until the first race>" sounds much better than, "We missed it by a ton that time."

[FW14B]

Very true Cos, F1 tech guys like Brawn rarely reveal the truth, there is always some kind of excuse like the one he has given.  Even if it is revoluntionary and likely to be copied I am sure they would rather have some mileage on it prior to Bahrain