Red Bull has reportedly requested the FIA to look into the much-talked-about Mercedes suspension trick.
Mercedes employed an engineering setup in their cars, wherein a tweak to their suspension grants them greater speed. This did not sit well with Red Bull, who claim the move is illegal and needs looking into.
The complaint is that the setup helped Mercedes increase the speed of the car. The Milton-Keynes team believes this was the reason they were way slower than their rivals at the Turkish GP.
As such, Red Bull has requested the FIA to look into the Mercedes suspension trick, and provide an update at the earliest.
Auto Motor und Sport reported that Red Bull “made the FIA take a closer look at the rear suspension of the Silver Arrows” in regard to its legality – but it seems that the “investigation was inconclusive”.
The report also suggested that Red Bull was in fact wrong in their accusation, as many teams on the grid employ the same measure. In fact, these teams do it “apparently even more radically than Mercedes”.
To make matters worse for Red Bull, Ferrari insisted that the idea has been a “normal set-up tool” of theirs for years.
Mercedes’ response
Mercedes reacted to Red Bull’s claims, saying that they “have had this system on board for years”. They also provided proof that their car’s rear axle has remained unchanged since the start of the 2020 season.
A Mercedes engineer was quoted as saying: “It was one of the homologated parts for us. We couldn’t change it at all. So the effects have always remained the same.”
Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff was also dismissive of Red Bull’s actions. He said, “As long as they want to waste their energies on something like that, it can only be fine with us.”