Whiting to attend Jerez amid legality rumours

The teams, the fans and the world’s media will not be the only ones with their eyes firmly on the action at Jerez next week.

It is rumoured Charlie Whiting, the technical delegate of formula one’s governing FIA, has scheduled to attend the first test of the 2012 pre-season.

The news follows speculation some teams are flying too close to the limits of the regulations with their new cars, notwithstanding the banning of blown exhausts.

At the launch of the new McLaren, for instance, the exhausts and the diffuser were carefully hidden.

"The fact of the matter is that exhausts exist on a car, you have to have them, they blow gas," said the team’s technical director Paddy Lowe.

"That will always generate some performance, a finite level of performance."

When the very aggressive-looking new Ferrari was unveiled in Italy on Friday, team president Luca di Montezemolo said he hoped arguments about the rules would not overshadow 2012.

"There are reports that ... Whiting may travel to Jerez next week due to concerns over the designs of the new cars," correspondent Tom Cary wrote in the Telegraph.