Red Bull Racing decides not to run F-duct

The team ran its version of the rear wing stalling device for the first time in Friday morning's free practice session, and the early indications were that it had brought a performance benefit to the pace-setting RB6 cars of Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel.

The team wanted to wait until after close analysis of car data in the post-session debriefs, however, to decide whether the F-duct was actually worth sticking with.

Following those meetings on Friday night, AUTOSPORT has learned that the team has decided against running the F-duct for the rest of the event - and it will now likely re-appear during free practice for the next race in Canada.

It is believed that the team felt that although the F-duct did bring the required straight-line speed boost, there were compromises to the downforce of the car - and it was not working in a consistent enough manner to risk running it for qualifying and the race.

Red Bull Racing is already clear favourite for victory in Turkey, with or without the F-duct, and the downforce advantage that the RB6 enjoys over its rivals will likely still overcome any straight-line speed deficit it suffers to opposition like McLaren.

Team principal Christian Horner said before the decision was made about not running the F-duct that his outfit would not risk upsetting its strong form

"The priority is to be ahead of the rest and McLaren and the Mercedes engines looks very strong here - especially up the hill in the last sector," said Horner on Friday night. "So we take nothing for granted.

"So far the F-duct seems to be working quite well. It seems to be replicating what we have managed to do in the tunnel and within our simulation tools, so we have a lot of data to look at tonight, and then make a decision as to whether it is maybe a little bit immature to race here. But we have a lot of very valuable data to either run it here or refine it further for Montreal."

Ferrari noted after it ran its F-duct in Spain that there had been a downforce compromise from featuring the system on its car, but refinements have improved its version for this weekend in Turkey.