Crews work on the new vent

Ross Brawn has admitted Mercedes' new air intake may not be ready in time for the Barcelona race. The Brackley team introduced a “passive” version of the system in China as efforts to copy McLaren's innovation continued at the team's factory.

Unlike McLaren, in Shanghai the Germans' F-duct was not activated by the driver but instead the air was somehow directed through a slot in the rear wing as speed increased.

“We are still working on the new system that will be ready for Barcelona or Istanbul. There's no point in debuting it in Monaco, where it's difficult to make it work fully,” Brawn said.

Ferrari also brought a provisional version of the F-duct to Shanghai.

“We are working on the system and we will bring some news to Barcelona, ​​although we cannot confirm it yet,” Fernando Alonso told Spanish newspaper Marca.

“It's not a simple system, but I know that the team is working hard to make it happen as soon as possible,” added the Ferrari driver.

Meanwhile, Auto Motor und Sport reports that Sauber will bring to Barcelona a development of the F-duct that the team debuted in China.

Williams also had problems with the original design of its new air intake in Shanghai and technical director Sam Michael is not hoping to resolve them any time soon.

“I think we still need a couple of months to get it fully working,” the Australian said.

Andre' Cotta