How long until...

[Conceptual]

...one of the teams is 2 seconds ahead of everyone else, and the FIA steps in and bans any "gray area" items that they are running, simply to screw the entire aero philosophy of that car.

I think that if Brawn are seriously that quick, that do-dad that is mounted in front of that splitter will be picked on, and since the sidepods are so tiny, there may be something like a minimum sidepod intake area or some such trash introduced to level out the sidepod inlet drag.

Is anyone else worried about this?

[modbaraban]

Is anyone else worried about this?

No. There's nothing 'against the spirit of the rules' so I think the others will just copy it instead of protesting to FIA. Once they start copying that solution (assuming that you are right about its magical effects) the FIA wouldn't be likely ban it. And I can't think of anything to justify any of the regulation changes that you mentioned. But then again it's FIA, they called a device hidden from the airflow inside the tub aerodynamic ........
Anythnig can happen in Grand Prix racing and it usually does (c).

[Conceptual]

Is anyone else worried about this?

No. There's nothing 'against the spirit of the rules' so I think the others will just copy it instead of protesting to FIA. Once they start copying that solution (assuming that you are right about its magical effects) the FIA wouldn't be likely ban it. And I can't think of anything to justify any of the regulation changes that you mentioned. But then again it's FIA, they called a device hidden from the airflow inside the tub aerodynamic ........
Anythnig can happen in Grand Prix racing and it usually does (c).

Renault's TMD was copied by several teams, but they had the advantage of designing the car around it, and thus could maximize its contribution.

I fear that the BGP is going to follow this same route if they are super-successful this year.

[timbo]

I fear that the BGP is going to follow this same route if they are super-successful this year.

Good design is durable. And it isn't down to a single component. It's not like that after mass-dampers were banned that Renault dropped to the bottom of the grid. It wasn't like that when McLaren's asymmetric braking system was banned either.