The FIA has announced that any damper systems which allow teams to regulate ride height of F1 cars between qualifying and race during a grand prix weekend are illegal. The much awaited clearance of the rules comes in the wake of news that McLaren are working extra hard on getting such a system in place ahead of the Shanghai Grand Prix, after alleging that Red Bull cars’ awesome pace is down to such a system.

If employed, such a system would allow changes to the ride heights of the cars for the two most crucial periods during a race weekend. The lower a car rides, the more downforce it can garner and the quicker it goes. Since the cars are lighter during qualifying and they have to take in fuel for the race on Sundays, the mechanics make adjustment to cars so that they sink down when the fuel goes in. But this means the cars ride higher than usual on Saturdays and thus for some teams short on downforce – like the McLaren – this poses a problem.

The ruling comes after even Mercedes boss Ross Brawn asked for the FIA to shed some clear light on the matter before it swung out of control. Ferrari are said to use a mechanical system which they can use during the first stop of their cars and change the ride heights manually to garner more downforce for the latter part of the race. But any system that affects the ride height during parc ferme conditions, when no changes can be made to the cars, is already illegal.

That was the allegation against Red Bull. They are said to be using gas-based dampers which when filled with gas on Saturdays allow the cars to run lower and then on Sunday can be re-adjusted to put the fuel in on Sundays. However Christian Horner has denied any such designs and he is presumably right. For reportedly the FIA thoroughly inspected the Red Bull cars at the Malaysian Grand Prix weekend and any irregularity would surely have come to notice. Instead the team took their first ever 1-2 finish.

Horner now says this ruling won’t affect his team simply because they don’t use the device. That is like adding insult to injury for McLaren for two reasons. For one, the ruling will bring in a spanner to their plans of getting the system in place ahead of the next race. It would have allowed them more downforce on their cars but no one should really be complaining at Woking after their F-duct was passed clear. You surely can’t get two aerodynamic rulings in your favor in one month.

Secondly they will just have to agree to the fact that the Red Bulls are just way too quick for their liking at the moment, and there is nothing they can do about it.