Mercedes’ ‘spaceship’ mirrors to face scrutiny at F1 rules meeting
As part of a radical sidepods overhaul that Mercedes r💦olled out on its W13 at last week’s Bahrain test, the team also reveale༺d a new mirror mounting arrangement on the Side Impact Protection system that caught the attention of its main rivals.
Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto described the mirrors as looking like “spaceships” and called for an FIA clampdown over 🅰the design rules, citing an agreement that mirrors are not supposed to be created to✃ achieve aerodynamic benefits.
“It’s something for the future that needs to be addressed,” said Binotto. 🍒“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.”
A meeting of F1’s Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) is expected to take place 😼today (Tuesday), in which Mercedes’ innovative design is likely to be challenged.
“You certainly don't 🌌want to ge🐻t in to a mirror war,” said Red Bull team principal Christian Horner.
"So much time in these technical meetings over the last 10 years or so has been talking about t♛he function of the mirrors and w🍌hether they become wings or not, and it is probably not the intention.
"🌳I'm sure in the right forum, in the TAC meeti♏ng they have, that will probably be addressed and discussed there.”
The FIA’s head of single-seater matters Nikolas Tombazis indicated there is nothing to suggest that Mercedes’ design contravenes the technical🏅 rules.
It is likely tꦰhat clarification over mirror designs will be reached, with the rules possibly reworded for the 2023 season to avoid discrepancies in future.
If the TAC finds that the rules need to be tightened or changed, the matte⛦r will move on to the F1 Co🔯mmotion for a vote.
“We always assess rules for following years, and we assess wheth🍸er things are clear, whether the new rules sometimes contain things that📖 may not have been phrased as well as intended and so on,” Tombazis said.
"I think by and large, the level of discrepancy is quite low from what is intended, but there are a few little areas, and we discussed that with the team♛s. We'll have another TAC meeting on Tuesday I believe to discuss th༺ese matters."
Lewis regularly attends Grꩵands Prix for mahbx.com around the world. Often reporting on the action from the ground, Lewis tells the s♚tories of the people who matter in the sport.
