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FIA announce Halo mounted mirrors are legal but not the Ferrari one’s

Utkarsh Bhatla
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The Halo-mounted Ferrari mirrors were initially considered to be a brilliant step taken by the Ferrari think tank to remain within the laws and extract some aerodynamic advantage.

However, as soon as the first few images emerged, rival teams started questioning the ‘legality’ of those mounted mirrors, as they felt Ferrari were trying to bend the rules.

FIA launched an investigation into the entire incident and finally banned the mounted mirrors for the Monaco GP.

The FIA technical directive however, stated that teams could mount mirrors on the Halo and hence Ferrari had decided to go ahead with their move.

FIA have now made a small amendment to that ‘rule’, as they now need teams to ensure that the aerodynamic change caused by these mounted mirrors has to be minimised.

“Whilst the FIA accepts that teams will legitimately design the mirrors, housings and mountings to minimise any negative aerodynamic effects they may cause, we believe that any aerodynamic benefits should be incidental, or at least minimal,” it said.

The FIA has basically made it clear to all teams that the mounted mirrors will need to provide some meaningful structural contribution to the car.

FIA has also vowed to come up with more clarity regarding the mirror mounting rules, so that there is no subjectivity around the entire thing.

“As the criteria for determining the eligibility of a mounting are to some extent subjective, the FIA would be available to discuss the legality of a new design before [teams] introduce it in a race, to avoid wasting resource, time or money,

“For the sake of clarity, the various provisions made in TD/014-18 [the technical directive permitting Halo-mounted mirrors] still apply for halo-mounted mirrors. The FIA expect to have full compliance with the present technical directive by the next race.

“The FIA do acknowledge that the rules currently in force with regard to mirrors are not perfect, and will strive to propose a more complete set of rules in terms of mirror position, mountings, visibility, etc… in the near future, with the aim to get a unanimous support for such changes for 2019.” the statement said.

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