Red Bull Racing's doubts about Lewis Hamilton's speed in Brazil were profuse. The Briton was a lot faster than the competition in his Mercedes, which made it seem like it wasn't just the engine. A new image on the internet seems to prove the Austrian racing team right.
Team principal Christian Horner expressed his concerns over Mercedes' so-called 'tricks' prior to the Qatar Grand Prix. In Brazil the team was given a penalty by the race committee for a DRS infringement. Although Mercedes claimed that this penalty was not given fairly, this appears to be the case.
The photo in the tweet below shows the Mercedes rear wing. Where the upper part of the rear wing is fixed, about five centimetres of the lower part is not. At high speed that last part gets too much load, causing it to lay flatter. As a result, Hamilton experienced less resistance when opening his DRS-system and the seven-time world champion is able to increase his speed.
Hope of Red Bull
The team of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez are hoping Mercedes will not do the same this weekend, thus creating an unfair battle in the championship. In the first two free practices there was little sign of this happening, as Hamilton was fourth fastest twice. Verstappen was first and third.