Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has berated the FIA for failing to take action with respect to ‘illegal cars’ taking advantage of a loophole in the rules earlier this season.
Wolff believes the FIA should have acted on this far sooner and not delayed things till the Belgian Grand Prix.
Starting from the race in Spa, the FIA is set to use an Aerodynamic Oscillation Metric (AOM) to measure the cars’ bouncing.
While this has been done to reduce porpoising of the cars, it has also unearthed a rather controversial loophole in the rules.
It was observed by the FIA that there were deformations on many team’s skid blocks.
According to the technical regulations, this damage was far more than the permissible levels.
It allowed teams to use their floors to gain greater speed.
It has further been debated that many teams even tricked this system altogether using their car’s weight as when the car was not in motion, no problem could be seen.
Once the cars were on the track though, the materials could expand and allow more flexibility and therefore enhance performance.
What did Wolff say?
“I think it was a coincidence that the FIA spotted it at one of the races and made it very clear that this was not on,” Wolff said.
“I think first of all there is no such thing as a magic bullet unless you speak of a double diffuser. So that is not going to make a big difference.
“They will need to run the car maybe on the front a little bit higher than they used to be.
“I think this (technical directive) should have been brought into place once it was discovered three races ago. So the argument of is it fair to have brought it into the middle of the season is the wrong one.
“It should have been introduced when it was discovered because it’s clearly much more than a loophole.”
Meanwhile, Red Bull boss Christian Horner believes rules should not be changed mid-season and hit out at reports claiming Red Bull has been bending the rules.
“Total, total rubbish. The floor… I think we’re getting issues mixed up here,” he said.
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