FIA wants to intervene before 2023: 'Visibility is now severely restricted'

The FIA wants to make rear-view mirrors mandatory by 2023. Since the start of the season, drivers have been complaining that they can see very little with the new cars. The FIA plans to intervene next season.

Drivers have been reporting since the start of the season that visibility is limited in the new cars. "Three quarters of the visibility, the area diagonally behind the drivers, is severely restricted", reports FIA technical chief Nikolas Tombazis to Auto, Motor und Sport. The FIA therefore wants to intervene to improve safety.

New design not yet a success

The FIA has asked the teams to test new versions of the mirror. Mercedes tested a larger mirror at Spa with Lewis Hamilton, and McLaren, Alpine, Red Bull Racing and Haas followed suit at Zandvoort. The prototype is 220 millimetres long and 60 millimetres high. This increases the mirror area by fifty percent, but comments followed on the appearance of the large mirrors. According to the FIA, however, safety is more important, as poor visibility has almost caused an accident on a number of occasions. However, it is still difficult to apply the new design to the 2022 cars.

"We have to prevent drivers from seeing less at the front because the mirror is in the way. There is only a small area where it fits", Tombazis explains. The entire structure has a width of 423 millimetres and a height of 187 millimetres. Aston Martin has already tried to attach the new mirrors to the current design, but that didn't improve things. "The drivers saw more, but mostly the sky", jokes team manager Andy Stevenson.