FIA dismisses Lotus protest against Mercedes F-duct – Formula 1 news
International Automobile Federation (FIA) has dismissed Lotus F1 team’s protest against Mercedes’ F-duct design in China on Thursday.
DRS-activated F-duct design of the Brackley-based team boosts the top pace of the car during the race and provides the driver with a competitive advantage over his contenders.
Mercedes have been facing huge criticism over the legality of their innovative F-duct device, especially from Lotus and Red Bull Racing.
Moreover, it will be important to mention that Lotus team principal, Eric Boullier threatened to protest against the results of qualifying of the season opener over the legitimacy of the design of W03. However, Charlie Whiting, F1 race director called it
to be legal.
Lotus filed an official protest on Thursday and a note read, “A protest has been lodged by Lotus F1 team concerning the Technical Delegate's scrutineering report (Document 5) of today's date regarding cars 7&8 relating to their conformity with Article 3.15
of the FIA F1 Technical Regulations. Accordingly a hearing of the parties concerned (namely Lotus F1 Team and Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team) is convened for 17.15 today Thursday April 12th 2012.”
In addition, the article stated, “With the exception of the parts necessary for the adjustment described in Article 3.18, any car system, device or procedure which uses, or is suspected of using, driver movement as a means of altering the aerodynamic characteristics
of the car is prohibited.”
Furthermore, the FIA dismissed the protest of Lotus while the technical department called the F-duct of Mercedes legal and in accordance with the rules and regulations.
Nevertheless, Lotus still have the right to appeal whereas, Mercedes can use their new system in the 2012 Chinese Grand Prix this weekend.
On the other hand, Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner has been asking questions about the compliance of the Mercedes design while he asked the governing body to make the necessary clarifications on this matter.
Nonetheless, the defending champions are silent now and it has been reported that they are working on their own system for the races ahead.
Besides, Ross Brawn, the team principal of Mercedes said that their device is cheap but very hard to integrate into existing cars’ structure.
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