I thought it might be helpful to create a separate thread here to discuss the possible exhaust system used by Mclaren.
The following was posted by Grey41:
"For a while now, people have been wondering exactly what McLaren's technical boffins have been up to with the design of the MP4-26, which had no immediately-apparent exhaust outlets. Where rumours of Renault's exhaust solution broke just hours after the car launch, it would appear that Woking have been even trickier than Enstone.
Scuttlebutt suggests that McLaren have managed to find a loophole in the regulations that allows them to have mutiple exhaust outlets. The exhaust moves from the engine to a ceramic "box" behind the gearbox, which then splits off into several smaller tubes that route the exhaust gasses across the whole diffuser, thus applying the concept of an exhaust-blown diffuser to the car by cleverly stepping around it.
Spinning out from this is the suggestion that McLaren's lack of pace has nothing to do with an absence downforce. Rather, the suggestion has been that the tubes used in the ceramic box - known as the "Octopus" - are too small and too long. They are supposedly deforming when exposed to the incredible heat of the exhaust, and they cannot handle the strain of forces exerted on them. If this is indeed true and McLaren can engineer a solution, the the MP4-26 could be incredibly competitive. If not, then the entire car will be compromised because an alternative solution will be needed and planned upgrades will be rendered useless.
I stress this is all just rumour right now, but if it's true, then I can see the FIA banning it at the end of the year. Or sooner if Ferrari complain about it.
Part of the problem is that McLaren apparently wanted to use material called "pyrosic" to manufacture the exhaust systems. It's a next-generation lightweight alloy that can easily withstand the kind of high temperatures produced by superheated exhaust fumes. But the FIA has apparently said no, and put pyrosic on the list of banned materials (most of which - like beryllium alloys used in engine manufacture in the late 1990s - seem to have been found by McLaren), because it could cost as much as twenty thousand Euros for a single exhaust manifold. While it has obvious benefits, it's simply too expensive in its current state to be used.
And a deforming exhaust could easily cost McLaren a second. Each of the exhaust outlets would be blowing exhaust gases over a particular area of the diffuser in a particular manner. If those outlets are deforming with the heat, then their profile is changing. If their profile is changing, the exhaust is hitting the diffuser in a different manner to what was intended. The effect is magnified because the entire diffuser is exposed to the exhaust gas bousing off it at the wrong vector. This will alter the rear-end aero dramatically - so much so that McLaren are lucky they've only lost a second."
Autosport has recently released a story "http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/90078" about how Mclaren are now reverting back to a more simple exhaust lay out which I believe makes the "Octopus" idea more plausible.
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