The battle for the world titles this year was characterized by the feats on the track of Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, but also by the ongoing controversy between Red Bull and Mercedes. The two teams, both based in the United Kingdom, have given life to an endless derby made up of verbal duels, requests for clarifications and accusations of mutual irregularities. Since the beginning of the year, the attention of Toto Wolff and Christian Horner has focused on the flexibility of the wings, first front and then rear, of the rival cars. The last chapter of this telenovela was Red Bull’s request for more ‘stringent’ tests regarding the rear wings of the cars.
This measure had already been introduced in Qatar and was surpassed by the W12 of Hamilton and Bottas. The same test will also be repeated in the last two races, in Jeddah and Abu Dhabi. Now though from the FIA comes a clarification, reported by the site RacingNews365.com. Those who ‘fail’ these ‘additional’ tests would not be excluded from qualifying or the race, as instead happened to Lewis Hamilton in Brazil due to the irregularity found on his DRS. A Federation spokesperson explained to the Dutch site that there is a well-defined list of tests that can be carried out, determined by the technical regulations or directives issued by the Federation itself. These new checks are vice versa intended only to collect information and are not part of the regulatory requirements. Rather, they could lead to the application of new criteria in the future.
A similar situation had also occurred at the beginning of the season, but with reversed parts. In fact, during the weekend of the Spanish GP, Mercedes had questioned the regularity of Red Bull’s wings. A new technical directive was issued to resolve the dispute, but the teams were allowed to use the existing wings still in existence for the Monte-Carlo, Baku and Paul Ricard races, before the new checks were put in place.
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