“The FIA must keep an eye,” Mercedes and Alpine back Red Bull against suspicious floor of the F1-75

“The FIA must keep an eye,” Mercedes and Alpine back Red Bull against suspicious floor of the F1-75

Toto Wolff, Christian Horner, Otmar Szafnauer

You don’t usually see the F1 teams seeing eye to eye on many subjects of interest, but when you do see them backing a certain team, it can be concluded that the matter is of utmost importance. And the same has happened in the case of Ferrari’s alleged new floor testing during a run for Pirelli tires, which was earlier questioned by McLaren and Red Bull. However, after an investigation by the FIA, no unfair means were reported on Ferrari’s end, and the team from Maranello was given a green signal.

Following the footsteps of Red Bull and McLaren from last week, Mercedes and Alpine have commented upon the issue. It is to be noted that now all the engine manufacturers other than the Ferrari itself have been on the fence over this issue.

Toto Wolff commented on the issue, given many details of the testing of Ferrari weren’t made public, sent a message to the FIA and said, “The FIA must keep an eye on these things. It can’t be that any team runs a component in an environment where it shouldn’t. And I guess if the FIA wasn’t 100 per cent behind that, I’m sure they are now.”

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On the other hand, Alpine’s CEO, Laurent Rossi, said, “: “I know the suspicions, but I wouldn’t say … I wouldn’t point the finger at anyone yet because I don’t know the details. That would not be fair. But at the end of the day, we need transparency. We need to know if something went wrong or not. And if so, what resulted from it?”

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Which incident led to Red Bull’s objection?

Red Bull and Ferrari in Imola
Red Bull and Ferrari in Imola

Ferrari was testing new tires for the Pirelli after the Imola GP when it was reported that the team used a new floor for the car of Carlos Sainz. Charles Leclerc’s floor was the same one as that used in the race.

And according to the regulations, “Cars may only use in these tests parts with a specification that have been used in at least one race or TCC [official test] in the current championship year. These cars must fully comply with the provisions of the Technical Regulations.”

Following this suspicion, McLaren filed a complaint, and Red Bull, too, made an observation. Both the teams were the first to report this to the authority. However, Ferrari was soon given a green signal by the FIA, concluding that the team used an old floor after the recently used one incurred damage.

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