Ferrari are unhappy with the “spaceship mirrors” on the Mercedes car in the latest complaint to be aired surrounding Lewis Hamilton’s team at pre-season testing in Bahrain.
The Mercedes W13 has been the subject of considerable debate after the team unveiled a different set up ahead of the 2022 F1 season, which begins next weekend.
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner claimed that the non-existent sidepods on the Mercedes car are “illegal” in an interview on Thursday, before withdrawing his comment 24 hours later.
And Ferrari counterpart Mattia Binotto has also raised concerns with the Mercedes car, although his complains focused on the mirrors Toto Wolff’s team are running on the W13 in Bahrain.
Binotto claimed Mercedes were not following the “spirit” of the rules as their wing-mirrors were designed to improve the aerodynamics of the car.
Although he did not suggest that Mercedes had acted illegally, the Ferrari boss told reporters: “On the mirrors, some are surprised. I find that quite surprising. That’s not something we are expecting. I think in the spirit of that, some things are needed. I think for the future [they] need to be addressed.
“Already in the past, we always argued the mirrors should not have any aero purpose. They should be there just to look behind.
“I think the way [Mercedes] treated or designed their car, certainly there is a significant aero purpose in the mirrors itself and I think something we need to stop for the future, no doubt, because the risk is we will come in the future that all the teams start designing mirrors that look like spaceships.
“I don’t think that’s what we are looking for as F1.”
Despite suggesting that Mercedes design had been against the rules, Horner appeared to rule out a Red Bull protest on Friday when he withdrew his complaints. Horner, like Binotto, only went as far to say that the design went against the spirit of the regulations.
But the Red Bull boss then explained: “There is not really anything that defines the spirit of the regulations. It either complies or it doesn’t and it not really for us to judge. The FIA has access to all of the drawings, and a design like that would surely have been submitted to them in advance.”