The “mirror war” has already started. Tomorrow at the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) meeting the topic will be on the agenda: the updated version of the Mercedes W13 car showed up on the track last Thursday in Bahrain with very narrow sidepods and an airfoil that contained the upper anti-intrusion cone. Above this unprecedented structure the rear-view mirror with its questionable supports found a place that ignited the discussion in the paddock.
Christian Horner, Red Bull team principal, had defined them “against the spirit of the regulation” as soon as he saw the images of the Brackley team’s aerodynamic solution, only to later deny the comments made to Michael Schmidt, authoritative journalist of German magazine Auto Motor und Sport.
Scuderia Ferrari Team Principal Mattia Binotto, on the other hand, did not hide: the Ferrari boss has taken on the responsibility of making it clear that the mirrors of the W13 perform an aerodynamic function which is prohibited by article 3.2.2 of the Formula 1 technical regulations.
Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto described the Mercedes design as looking “like spaceships” and explained that they were actyally an aero element rather than mounting the wing mirror: “It’s something for the future that needs to be addressed. Already in the past, we said the mirrors should have no aero purpose. They should be there just to look behind and I think the way that they [Mercedes] design the cars has a significant aero purpose in the mirrors.”
Some teams, therefore, would have submitted to the FIA some requests for clarification that will be discussed in the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) tomorrow. The intention is to try to settle the dubious issues before the start of the 2022 Formula One season, in order to avoid that such a promising championship is immediately conditioned by ferocious controversies.
Show your support for Scuderia Ferrari with official merchandise collection from Puma!
The intention would be to resolve the cases before the start of the Bahrain GP weekend to ensure that the pending issues do not end up in the hands of the sports commissioners.
It must be said that Mercedes had made the CAD data of the new W13 available to the FIA and the fact that the evolution of the silver arrow has not received any dispute from the federal commissioners, highlights how for Nikolas Tombazis, the Mercedes car respects the technical regulation 2022.
“We always evaluate the rules also according to the following years and we evaluate if things are clear and if the new rules can sometimes contain things that may not have been written as we had foreseen them – said Nikolas Tombazis -. I think that overall the level of discrepancy is quite low, although there are some small areas that we have discussed with the teams. I believe we will have another TAC meeting on Tuesday to settle these issues.” – he explained.
Leave a Reply