Apologies for the headline – I couldn’t resist. Sometimes a news story fits too perfectly into an advertising slogan, and my inner Sun headline-writer can’t stand the missed opportunity. The Daily Telegraph reported last night that Red Bull Racing and Ferrari were concerned about the legality of McLaren’s rear wing. Speaking to the newspaper, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said: “There’s a bit of a fuss over McLaren’s rear wing. They have a slot on it [affecting air flow] and they can pick up a lot of straight-line speed. I think it will get resolved before the first race. We’ve asked the FIA for clarification although I think Ferrari are probably more excited than we are to be honest.”
What makes this story a bit more interesting than the usual pre-season legality tussles is that Ferrari don’t seem to know what Horner is on about. McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh told the Telegraph earlier today “we've spoken to Ferrari this morning and they're not aware of any protest either."

There can’t be an F1 fan out there who’s forgotten the double diffuser controversy that shaped the early part of the 2009 season. Debates over the legality of the double diffuser loophole spotted by three teams cast a shadow over last year’s opening races, and it took so long for the FIA to rule that the other teams had to play an impossible game of catch-up.

Fortunately, it doesn’t look like that’s going to be the case this year. At McLaren’s January launch, engineering director Paddy Lowe spoke about the car’s development, and emphasised that the team had spent a lot of time checking that their design fit within the 2010 rule book.

"We think the interpretation is very clear," Lowe said. "In certain aspects we have sought guidance from the FIA and they have come out with very clear interpretation, understanding and guidance -- and we think that has been made available to all the teams. We are hoping for a much cleaner start to the season then we had a year ago in terms of the teams' collective understanding of the basis from which we go racing."

Lowe’s comments were widely quoted at the time, to disparage interweb comments that a new diffuser war was brewing, this time between Ferrari and McLaren. Nothing came of that war, and I hope that nothing will come of this one. After all, it seems highly unlikely that the Woking outfit would spend months communicating with the FIA about their diffuser, but forget to mention other rule-bending elements of their design.

In his conversation with the Telegraph, Horner makes a similar comment. “Our question ultimately will be: 'Is it clever design or is it in breach of the regulations’? [McLaren] must be very confident that it’s legal. I would think it will be legal.”

So if Christian Horner thinks it’s legal, and McLaren think it’s legal, and Ferrari have no complaint to make, where exactly did the story come from? And therein lies the rub. Fans in search of drama have been posting all manner of comments about new technology rows between the various teams. That’s fair enough – everyone likes a bit of gossip to chew over, and none of the fan-originated stories have made it into the press.

This story, on the other hand, comes from the horse’s mouth. Or the team principal’s mouth, anyway. To paraphrase the Telegraph story, Horner says that his team are querying the legality of an air intake that he thinks is legal. I know F1 is traditionally a logic-free zone, but I’m beyond confused.

If this were one of the smaller teams on the lookout for some free publicity, I’d understand. But Red Bull don’t really need much in the way of brand awareness. There’s not a person on the planet who hasn’t seen the ads, and most of them will have drunk the Kool-Aid at some point – usually with vodka. As for the race team, they’re one of the Gang of Four, the teams viewed to be the main challengers for the championships. We all know who they are.

There have been suggestions that Horner is using the media to get back at McLaren over old engine issues. Red Bull had hoped to be able to use the Mercedes engine but were vetoed – allegedly by McLaren, who are also Mercedes-powered.  I think that’s a stretch – after all, isn’t vengeance supposed to involve some sort of revenge? All that we have here is a news story guaranteed to generate excitement for a day or two before it gets buried somewhere on the interweb.

And why bring Ferrari into it? The Scuderia have yet to comment on the McLaren air-flow saga, but given similar incidents in the past I would expect the team to be vocal in condemning something it thought to be illegal.

Whitmarsh appears confident that the wing will be declared legal for use. “The wing is different and innovative, yes,” he told the Telegraph. “We have been in contact with Charlie [Whiting, FIA technical director] over a period of several months to check that it complies with regulations. We have been assured that it does.”

I know I’m not alone in hoping all this will blow over so we can get down to some proper racing next week. Storm in an energy drink can, anyone? Kate Walker Girlracer Magazine http://www.girlracer.co.uk

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