Problems ahead for Ferrari and Red Bull?
What sounded like a complaint about porpoising from Classic Mercedes for sale it is proving to be a strategy to cripple the two top teams and file the gap from the top. In the Technical Advisory Committee after the week of the Montréal GP, in fact, the FIA has advanced the suspicion that the F1-75 , RB18 are equipped with a flexible bottom.
How did he find out? Studying data related to the porpoising issue. The rules currently in force provide for a maximum movement of 2 millimeters in the two central holes of the board and no more than 2 mm in the rearmost hole to guarantee sufficient rigidity to the floor.
The Maranello team and the Milton Keynes team passed all the technical checks to which their cars were subjected with flying colours. In the paddock, however, there are those who believe that some teams come to 6 millimeters of deflection. This way they can lower remarkably the height from the ground and generate greater load aerodynamic.
The words of Toto Wolff
The Mercedes team principal Toto wolff he declared himself surprised by the findings: “Nobody had an idea until the FIA raised the matter in the last Technical Advisory Committee, which was a big surprise for all teams".
"What is written in the regulation and what the spirit is is quite clear – continues the Austrian manager – I mean, there's no argument why one should deviate from those values. So for us it was a surprise if not a shock".
What will the FIA do now?
From the Grand Prix of France, scheduled for July 24, the International Federation will increase controls on the movements of the bottom and the table. The chief technician in the single-seater area Nicholas Tombazis he explains that he was carrying out an act aimed at guaranteeing justice among all the cars (suggesting that this has not been the case so far).
McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl he said he was happy with the clarification because it should put all the teams on an equal footing. Also the head of track engineers at Mercedes, Andrew Shovlin, is confident that the updated regulations can affect the direct competitors of the three-pointed star, allowing ad Hamilton e Russell to get even closer to the top.
In three weeks, therefore, it will be discovered whether the new rules will lead to one upheaval of the values in the field or if Red Bull and Ferrari will maintain what until now has seemed an inescapable leadership.
