Apr.11 (GMM) Williams’ Pat Symonds has slammed Force India for dismissing wind tunnels as “dinosaur technology”.
Red Bull has controversially proposed that wind tunnels be banned from formula one.
It did not receive widespread support, except from the Force India deputy chief Bob Fernley, who said in Malaysia two weeks ago that F1 should move on.
“If F1 is the pinnacle of motor sport,” he said, “it should be pushing the boundaries, and the boundaries are in CFD and hybrid.
“And I think environmentally it (wind tunnels) is sending the wrong message as well, as these things are huge consumers of electricity,” added Fernley.
Williams technical boss Symonds, however, on Friday lashed back at Fernley’s “clearly ridiculous” statement that wind tunnels are now a “dinosaur technology”.
“Our wind tunnels are anything but dinosaurs,” he said of the Grove based team.
For 2015, Force India has abandoned its own wind tunnel in Brackley, admittedly because it is “old” and not capable of taking the now-standard 60 per cent scale models.
The team is now using Toyota’s facility in Cologne.
Symonds continued: “Just because a technology has been around for a while doesn’t mean that it joins the reptiles of old.
“Cars have been around for a long while — are cars dinosaur technology?
“Maybe Bob ought to come and have a look at a decent wind tunnel and just see how technically advanced they are,” Symonds added.