One of the big talking points to come out of Formula 1 testing was McLaren's innovative diffuser design, though technical director James Key is certain it won't be long before teams jump on it. Regulations introduced in 2021 require that the height of the strakes, which lie within the diffuser, be shortened by 50mm compared to previous seasons. McLaren worked around this by extending the floor transition in a central area that isn't limited by this restriction, thus funning deeper fins. The Woking outfit did their best to hide the design when presenting their car, however they could hide no more during the testing in Bahrain. Key was surprised that no other team adopted the approach, though he won't be shocked to see it adopted by others in the near future. "It's a pretty normal idea," Key told told RacingNews365.com and other members of the media. "We are actually quite surprised that we are the only team that has it. I think you can jump on an idea that you spot on another team within a week easily nowadays. "Then it's really understanding how it works with your car, that's the key to this. You can then end up with a unique geometry of your own because you might understand the principle, but then you have to adapt it accordingly that it works with your car. "So you'd probably therefore wind tunnel test it, which might be a week or two down the line and then you've got to manufacture it. So you could say between I suppose three and five weeks between taking the picture and putting it on the car if you really wanted to push this through".
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