From GMM

Both systems of the two teams work well on the long straights of Malaysia's Sepang circuit.


McLaren's 'F-duct' air inlet and rear wing system helps giving a speed in the straight-line.

Lewis Hamilton explains: "It's quite a high downforce circuit and I have no doubts the Red Bulls and Ferraris will have more downforce in their cars than us. But hopefully we will be able to balance that out with our straightline speed."

Part of McLaren's advantage is the lack of downforce and the impressive Mercedes engine, but also working well is the F-duct, where Hamilton and Jenson Button block an inlet with their left knee and stall the efficiency of the rear wing.

Jenson Button admits: "Our straightline speed is really good. We were 14kph quicker than the Red Bulls (on Friday). 14!"


Sauber was happier with its latest version of the McLaren-like 'F-duct' system at Sepang.

The Swiss team abandoned the prototype model after practice in Melbourne, and used a modified version aboard the C29 cars in Malaysia.

Peter Sauber told Blick newspaper: "We are still too slow, but at least our rear wing system seems to work."

Technical chief Willy Rampf added: "We sent the data back to Hinwil after practice, where it will be evaluated and then we will decide whether we continue to use it (the F-duct). The system is very interesting, but it's only good if it works. Fortunately, we only need ten minutes to put it on and take it off!" he added.

The team's Spanish driver Pedro de la Rosa told EFE news agency: "We are very close to making it work. I am in favour of keeping it (on the car), because the only way to make it work is to test it over more miles. It (the system) is much more complex than it seems, even though the concept is very simple."