Making up the difference?

Sorry if this has been posted elsewhere already, but considering the lack of in season testing this year, what strategies are teams like Mclaren and Ferrari going to adopt for introducing the big aero updates required for a new diffuser?

I know it is still very early in the season, and anything can happen, but lets assume that the diffuser row does not yield any changes for Brawn, Toyota & Williams - will the rest of the field switch focus to next year's car early, or will they in effect bring "2" cars to friday testing, or will they use their 8 days of straight line testing to try and get the updates tested and approved.

Also, the limit to in season testing - does it only apply to cars being entered into the championship? ie - could the teams "test" other cars (2004/5/6/7/8/hybrids) with new diffusers to gain some idea as to how effective the solution is.. I know you cant just bolt on a new diffuser without substantial aerodynamic updates to the rest of the car, but what other options are there?

So in short - with no in season testing - how do the big teams "spend their way out of trouble"...

i think they would give the car a short shakedown and probably bring one car with the new package fitted, with the other car staying as-is if the team is already strong (like RBR). If you're someone like Renault or Force India you might want to put it on both cars and just hope the windtunnel and CFD number match up with the track performance

Originally posted by tahadar
i think they would give the car a short shakedown and probably bring one car with the new package fitted, with the other car staying as-is if the team is already strong (like RBR). If you're someone like Renault or Force India you might want to put it on both cars and just hope the windtunnel and CFD number match up with the track performance

Yeah, I considered that, but its an awfully huge "gamble".. based on what I have heard, these updates will almost be equivalent to "B" spec cars - bringing a new car to a GP with "no" reliability testing seems like a gamble that would not be taken easily.. I know the factories do a lot of testing before the cars hit the track, even for winter testing - but this is still a massive gamble. Running one car of each spec, seems reasonable, but in a team such as Ferrari or BMW, with no clear number 1, which driver do you "penalize" or "promote"...