Mercedes will still use illegal front wing in Mexico

The Mercedes team introduced a new front wing last weekend in Austin. The new part was not used in Austin and the competition looked at the design with suspicion. Mercedes will also take the part to Mexico this weekend and they want to use the wing there.

The new Mercedes wing immediately caught the eye of the competition last weekend. The endplates were modified and a number of so-called slot gap separators were added to the wing. All teams may only use eight of these separators to connect the flaps together so that they do not move too much under high pressure. However, the elements of Mercedes were bigger than other teams. The competition therefore wonders whether the elements are intended to keep the wing together.

A copy

Despite possible protests from competing teams, Mexico City does want to start racing with the wings. In the debrief on YouTube, trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin said: “The reason we didn’t run the wing in Austin is because we only had one. If the part got damaged during qualifying, the driver with the rear wing to start.”

Friday

Mercedes does not feel like protests from the competition so they may want to adjust the wing. In Mexico they will in any case drive with the part. Shovlin is quite clear about that: “In Mexico we will have more copies of the part. We will drive it on Friday to make sure it all works as expected. At the moment the plan is that we will just race the wing. “