“No secret” F1 floor rule changes designed to ‘peg back’ Mercedes - Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton says it is “no secret” that Formula 1’🐠s new aerodynamic rules were i🏅ntroduced to try and rein in Mercedes’ advantage over the rest of the field.
Teams have been required to carry-over a signif𓆉icant portion of their 2020 cars into this season as part of a major cost-saving exercise, but changes were made to the rear of the floor in a bid💙 to reduce downforce levels and slow the cars down.
Meಌrcedes has dominated the V6 hybrid era by winning seven world championship doubles in a row but Hamilton was beaten to pole position by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen at the season-opening♐ Bahrain Grand Prix by almost four-tenths of a second.
It꧒ came off the back of Mercedes’ struggles in pre-season testing and amid the suggestion that its lower-rake concept has been hit harder by the floor changes compared to the high-rake approach taken by Red Bull.
On Friday, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff conceded that the team’s analysis had shown that to be the case and said it was 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:“physically not possible” f♕or the Brackley-based outfit ♎to make its W12 a high-rake car this season.
Asked whether he felt the rule changes had been introduced specifically tꦰo influence the pecking order, Hamiltoꦫn replied: “I mean it’s no secret that the changes, of course they’ve been done to peg us back.
“We had ꧂the changes of course l🦄ast year to our engine to do the same thing.
“But that's OK, we love a challenge and we don't look down on these things, we just work hard to do the best we can. ไAnd that's what we'll do🐈.”
Hami🥃lton’s Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas said he had “no answe💟r” when pressed for a response on the matter.
“I like aero stuff, I’m a bit of a geek in some ways, like aerodynamics, I’m really intere🐓sted but I don’t know the facts, how exactly what’s the aero philosophy of t♒he Red Bull,” the Finn added.
"Yes, it’s higher rake, but how much that’s going to affect with the new regulations I don’t know. I think they’ve really got a strong package overall, the powe♔r unit, the chassis, the aero are good.
“They did a g💦ood job over the winter, so we need to 💮do a better job.”
Lewis regularly attends Grands Prix for mahbx.com around the world. Often reporting on the action from the 💞ground, Lewis tells the stories of the people who matter in the sport.
