MPH: Mark Hughes on...

It was like an episode of The X-Files set in the F1 paddock. Science fiction and conspiracy all rolled into one. Implications of 'black technology' - the sensitive stuff that's so super-secret that governments deny its existence; disguise budgets as something else. Some of it had somehow bled into F1.

It was said that a leading team had purchased a trial of a radical new surface process that increased downforce for no penalty in drag - the holy grail of any aerodynamicist.

It was a synthetically-created substance that, when processed, formed a clingfilm-like sheet. For the purposes of the trial, this was fitted to the front wing. Supposedly, it was first tried on one of the team's cars in Turkey last year - and the team was reportedly staggered to see how much extra downforce was produced, especially through the fast Turn 8. Thereafter, the story goes, the team used it on both its cars for the remainder of the season, still on a trial basis.

'SPIKE-UPS' raise surface area

When a small electrical charge was applied to the surface, even a small static charge, it would 'spike up' on a microscopic level, hugely increasing its surface area and making the wing much more effective. The electrical charge would be triggered by a mercury sensor. With the car level down the straight the mercury would not contact. But under longitudinal or lateral load it would, thereby triggering the 'spike-up'. This way the 'spike-up' would create downforce when needed, but would then automatically switch off when the car was level, meaning no increase in drag.

In applications with higher speeds than F1, the process had been deemed unsuitable, because it wouldn't remain stable. But apparently, up to 200mph there was no problem. It was like a microscopic moving wing. In its spiked form, the surface would look just like it had a poor paint finish. What was special was no more visible to the naked eye than that - and even then you'd never see it because it was only triggered when the car was out on track.

It took a bit of adapting to by the driver, it was said, because to take full advantage of the principle you'd run a small angle of incidence on the front wing, relying on the process to provide you with the downforce. So in the transient phase, as he began braking, the car would be giving him low-downforce-type messages while he was committing to high-downforce-type entry speeds. It was a little bit like an early active car, in that the driver had to discard the messages the car's movements were telling him, convince himself that they were irrelevant.

Despite the great results, the team didn't continue with the trial into this year, or take it up permanently. The problem was the cost, eye-watering even by F1 standards, emphasising how the technology was way beyond F1, way beyond engineering and into quantum physics effects. The implication was of a manufacturing process involving close-to-light-speed neuron bombardment, and the cost of time spent in establishments that could do that job.

But now the idea is out there, it is said that teams are looking at ways of trying to simulate the effect with less exotic materials. There has been some success, so the story goes, with sodium or calcium-based materials. It's not as good in that it does not stay applied for very long - just a few laps. But it can still give you a valuable benefit in qualifying and, rather than just the front wing, it is said to be applied to other parts of the car.

'Bullshit', on drugs or feasible?

So I've been asking around, talking to F1 engineers about the feasibility of the story. The response has been fascinating. The team involved in the story was Ferrari. These engineers say they have heard about processes similar to this, but that the story of them having trialled it is 'bullshit', and that from their investigations they could see no way of applying such technology to a racing car.

A former F1 engineer listened very carefully, then explained that he'd actually investigated a similar process for an America's Cup boat. Another engineer, a hugely practical down-to-earth guy, said he believed it. It sounded more than feasible. Yet another laughed, called the whole idea 'absolute bollocks' and suggested I come off whatever drugs I was on.

Our own Gary Anderson had this to say: "It's all possible and there are many ways of doing something like this. People have proposed something similar to me in the past, but we never had the money at Jordan to follow it through.

One of the simplest ways I had proposed to me of a similar effect was by having critical areas of the rear-wing surface drilled with lots of very small (0.2mm diameter) holes at angles that matched as closely as possible the surface flow.

A small compressor on the engine would keep an accumulator topped up, and this air pressure would be released when the driver requested it via a solenoid valve into the wing. it would then flow under pressure through the holes, so reducing the drag on the straights.

The solenoid would shut off and seal the wing when the driver requested it just before a corner. Rudimentary tests in the tunnel seemed to show that it had some merit, but was it legal? I didn't think so at the time so we didn't pursue it, but it would be a lot cheaper than unobtanium."

The engineers at McLaren (a team on whose behalf, incidentally, I need to correct my careless wording here a couple of weeks ago, where the suggestion of Ferrari-inspired parts was meant to refer to the pre-season FIA investigation, and not anything on any McLaren that has actually raced this season) were intrigued, but without more detail of the process didn't feel able to comment on its feasibility.

So where does that leave us? It leaves us at the usual ending of the X-Files episode, where it's been established that something strange is going on, but there's so much subterfuge that there's no way of knowing who is providing it and who's playing straight. Remember: the truth is out there.