The Mercedes front wing is perfectly legal. According to the FIA technical commissioners, he respects the regulations and the case collapses before it even begins. The doubts arose upon the debut of the W15 on the Silverstone filming day and upon seeing the first images of the presentation: the last flap of the front wing, in the portion closest to the nose, is represented by a spherical carbon wire that connects with a support for the actual adjustable element.
The solution is the result of a careful reading of the rules and, in the end, the government body did not receive the requests for regulatory clarification that had been hypothesized in the paddock, before the International Federation promoted the idea of James Allison's staff.
Mercedes W15: The wing has been declared legal by the FIA
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
The filiform profile was deemed compliant with article 3.9.1 of the F1 technical regulations, paragraph e) which specifies that only the last element seen from above can be detached from the others, while the three profiles must be partially overlapped to avoid there being light between them.
Toto Wolff hinted that his technicians kept in contact with the FIA men during the development of the project: “What is mounted on a single-seater always follows an exchange of information with the FIA throughout the entire design and construction process. We were aware, therefore, that we were on the right path.
The admittedly curious idea has attracted a lot of media attention to Mercedes, but in Brackley they are aware that it will not give a great performance advantage. Yet the Star's technicians tried to reproduce a vortex (certainly less efficient than the Y250 one of recent pre-2021 memory) which could have effects on the wake of the front wheel, affecting the spirit of the regulation.
Pat Symonds, F1 technical director, explained on Sky UK: “The Mercedes solution is perfectly in the spirit of the rules, because it respects the rules to the letter. There is absolutely no doubt about it. We will see how effective it will be…”.
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