Mercedes may come under fire for their avant-garde new front-wing design since F1 technical specialist Craig Scarborough has suggested that the FIA will hold “discussions” with the Silver Arrows. In order to narrow the gap with Red Bull, Toto Wolff and company have been working diligently over the off-season.
Mercedes has been unable to keep up with Red Bull with the implementation of ground-effect design restrictions in 2022. Due to George Russell’s and Lewis Hamilton’s difficulties adjusting to the “zero sidepod” design, Wolff acknowledged early in the 2017 season that the team would start playing differently.
After great anticipation, such assertions were realized on Wednesday with the introduction of Mercedes’ brand-new Formula One vehicle, the W15, which at first glance seems to be much more traditional than their prior pursuits.
However, by restoring “outwash,” which the most recent set of design regulations were intended to eradicate, their “cheeky” front wing could make Hamilton and Russell more difficult for rival cars to follow.
“I refer to it as the 3.1 wing, as it deviates from both the three- and four-element wing models,” Scarborough said on Peter Windsor’s YouTube channel. “So if you’ve got about point one of a wing there somewhere, and as I can read the regulations, it’s legal.”The other teams have undoubtedly already considered and rejected these ideas, but I believe the FIA, F1, and the teams will talk about this and ask themselves, “If this is introducing outwash, is this something we want in the sport again?” Haven’t we put in a lot of effort to sort of eliminate the issues with cars following one another?
