March 28, 2024

F1 test in Bahrain - 'illegal for us': Competition complains about Mercedes-sports design

F1 test in Bahrain – ‘illegal for us’: Competition complains about Mercedes-sports design

Contents

Mercedes’ stunning new design is causing controversy in tests in Bahrain.

Legend:

Where are the side boxes?

Mercedes surprises with a new design during the driving experiences in Bahrain.

imago pictures / motorsports pictures

New Mercedes Lewis Hamilton didn’t want to please Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto at all. “We are surprised,” Binotto said on the sidelines of the Bahrain driving trials, because the mirror should not actually be used as an aerodynamic component.

“These are not mirror mounts, they are wings. This is not in the spirit of the regulations,” Red Bull boss Christian Horner complained in the specialist magazine. Car, cars and sports“For us, these wings are illegal.”

When you introduce innovations, this obviously raises controversy.

Compared to his Barcelona driving experience, Hamilton is driving a completely different W13 in Bahrain. Mercedes runs almost without side boxes. The cooling pad is no longer wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, but the other way around. In addition, the described struts of anti-impact protection protrude horizontally from the chassis, to which the rear-view mirrors are attached.

The fastest Ferrari


open box
close the box

On the second day of the final testing of the new Formula 1 season (starting on March 20th), Ferrari presented itself strongly once again. Spaniard Carlos Sainz set the best time of the day with a time of 1: 33.532 minutes. Behind him was world champion Max Verstappen in Red Bull (+0.609sec). Record champion Lewis Hamilton in the innovative Mercedes design car took fourth place, and Alfa Romeo cars ranked outside the top ten. Traditionally, driving test results should be treated with caution.

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff remained calm and emphasized that everything was in line with the current rules: “When you introduce innovations, it’s clear that this raises controversy. We were expecting that.”

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