Mercedes are adamant that their rear wing is ‘rock solid’, stating the team have passed the new tests introduced by FIA comfortably.
The conversation about legal rear wings has been going on for months now. Ever since the start of the 2021 season, Mercedes and Red Bull have been at each other’s throats, questioning the legality of their respective wings.
Towards the early stages, Mercedes accused Red Bull of using a ‘flexi-wing’ that was giving the team an unfair advantage.
Since then, the FIA have instructed all teams to stop using those rear wings. The issue seemed to resolve until Red Bull brought it up ahead of the Sao Paolo GP in November. This time, the Milton-Keynes team felt that their rivals were using a flexible rear wing that was giving them a considerable advantage on the straights.
Mercedes says that there is nothing crazy about their much-discussed rear wing and that their rear wing has passed FIA‘s extra weight test on Saturday.
Meanwhile Red Bull think that Mercedes did not use their “special” rear wing in Qatar, stating the comparable top speed. https://t.co/UTb6T3fBlv
— tami. (@Vetteleclerc) November 22, 2021
Red Bull have been working on collecting evidence for a ‘potential protest’ for a long time now. Their team representatives have also been in touch with FIA regarding the same issue.
The governing body of Formula 1 reacted by introducing a new rear wing test at the Qatar GP. According to the sources from within Mercedes, the German team ‘passed it with flying colors‘.
What was the new test Mercedes had to pass?
In this new test introduced by the FIA, the main blade of the rear wing had to be pulled down in two places with 35 kg weights each.
The Mercedes source said they had no problems whatsoever. “The wing was rock solid. You could have hung 100 kilos on it,” he said. He followed it up by taking another dig at rivals Red Bull. “Maybe Red Bull will ask for 105 kilograms next time.” he added.
Red Bull was quick to throw another accusation towards the Silver Arrows. According to them, the Brackley based team switched the rear wings of the W12 on Saturday, hence passing the test. As a result, the Mercedes cars were slow on the straights during the race in Lusail.
Now that the FIA have done their rear wing tests and the Mercedes cars have passed with flying colours, should some action be taken against Horner and RBR?
Their allegations about mainplane flexing were made with some certainty – “this is what they’re doing” – slanderous? #F1
— Rob Myers (@RobLMyers) November 22, 2021
The Mercedes source who spoke to the media firmly denied these accusations stating they had ‘not swapped anything’.
The Qatar GP was a good race for Lewis Hamilton as he cut down Max Verstappen’s lead at the top to just 8 points. On the other hand, Red Bull enjoyed a good weekend as a team. The Austrian team are now just 4 points off Mercedes in the Constructor’s standings.
