Scuderia Ferrari’s Halo-mounted wing mirrors are set to be banned today because the FIA does not approve of the way they are attached to the car. Charlie Whiting, the FIA Formula One Race Director, Safety Delegate, Permanent Starter and head of the F1 Technical Department, confirmed the FIA will issue a technical directive to ban the design Ferrari introduced at the Spanish Grand Prix.
“There’s a liberal interpretation of the word ‘mounting’” – he explained – “That’s how they’ve become legal because there’s no bodywork allowed in the area. The interpretation hinges on whether we think that’s a mounting or not. We somehow think not, so we are going to take some action on that.” – Charlie Whiting said the team had exploited a grey area in the rules with its design, which was why they’d been allowed to run it at the Spanish Grand Prix – “If it was a clear breach of the regulations they wouldn’t have been allowed to use it here. But we’ll clarify that to everybody.”
If the team runs the same design in Monaco “we’ll probably go and see the stewards about it. But I think the TD [technical directive] will make it clear.” – Charlie Whiting added, as reported by the British media. The FIA had previously confirmed teams are allowed to mount mirrors on the Halo: “We sent a TD a few weeks ago in response to a number of questions from other teams about whether the principle of mounting the mirror on the Halo was acceptable. We answered yes, it was, and we gave a few stipulations, one that it has to be a mounting.” – the FIA Formula One Race Director concluded.
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