Red Bull pressure FIA into forcing Mercedes to make a change to their car

Red Bull Racing has fired the first shot at Mercedes ahead of the 2020 season. While everyone is mainly concerned with the statement of the FIA on the legality of the Ferrari from 2019, Red Bull has applied for clarification over a Mercedes design.

You would say that the same set of regulations for 2020 should cause little commotion, but nothing seems less true. With the DAS system, Mercedes already woke up the competition and the front suspension of Red Bull also went around the world. With Mercedes' rear wheels, however, there is something else going on.

Red Bull wins the first battle

According to Red Bull, Mercedes and Racing Point use a construction to ensure that the brakes are cooled down better. However, this extra construction is above the permitted space for ventilation, so Red Bull asked for clarification. The FIA has now made a clear statement about this.

In the statement, the FIA states that the teams that have used this construction should remove it immediately. According to the regulations, only limited use may be made of that space, and those rules are now being violated. This is certainly not to the benefit of Mercedes and Racing Point, because extra cooling will, of course, keep the tyres at a better temperature and therefore wear less quickly.

This article was written by Tim Kraaij and first appeared on GPBlog.com/nl