Then Sao Paulo Grand Prix, Team Leader Mercedes, Toto Wolf, compared to being hit in the face several times over the weekend of a race for his team. He said he was outraged by the commissioners’ decisions International Automobile Federation (FIA) They continued to turn against his team and, in his view, said that “the time for diplomacy is over”.

In light of the strength of his words, it is not surprising that Mercedes wrote a letter to the FIA ​​on Tuesday urging it to reconsider one of the most controversial events of the race. Wolfe described the commissioner’s decision not to investigate the conflict Max Verstappen And Lewis Hamilton “The tip of the iceberg” and “Laughable” in fold 48.

But to understand how we got here, we have to rewind on Friday afternoon at Interlogos and make the first decision against Mercedes.

In qualifying for Saturday’s sprint race, Hamilton earned the honorary title of just 0.4 seconds and was disqualified from that session. Traction reduction system (TRS), Its abbreviation in English) failed the routine test on his car. The flap of the rear wing, which opens to reduce traction and increase maximum speed, was opened 02.mm higher than the 85mm allowed under the rules. It was only on one side (right, viewed from behind) and only when pressure was forced, but in the black and white world of technical terms it failed.

Mercedes believed the failure was due to spoiler damage, however did not allow the mechanics to inspect the components until the end of the racing weekend or attempt to repair the damage to show that it wanted to legalize the spoiler. In fact, the maids never doubted the legitimacy of Mercedes’ planned design and agreed that the reason for the wide opening must have been damage. But A failed test is a failed test no matter what it looks like, And while he was standing in front of the maids, they had no choice but to use the rules and disqualify the car.

On Friday night, before the test failed, it was revealed that Challenger Max Verstappen was the only person to touch the wing in Hamilton’s title. Of the pilot Red bull He said he was looking for evidence of another breach of the law to explain Mercedes’ impressive right-line speed in Interlagos, but his intervention would have to suspend the investigation until Saturday morning so video could be obtained and Verstappen was summoned to the commissioner’s room. Verstappen was fined 50,000 50,000 for violating the ‘Park Fermat’ protocol, but both the maids and Mercedes admitted that the TRS test had failed. As soon as Verstappen was fined, Hamilton was disqualified from the qualifying results due to a TRS test.

Why did Mercedes request a review?

In Saturday’s sprint race, Hamilton struggled on the grid from last to fifth in 24 rounds – five points without a penalty to change the machine that would have propelled him to fifth place on Sunday’s stage for the Grand Prix. Tenth left him. There is no argument about Mercedes’ engine penalty, The team decided to take after balancing it against the advantage of running the new engine in the last four races.

Starting in the tenth, Hamilton battled for second place across the field before Verstopane took the lead in the first half of the race. At the 4th turn on the 48th lap, he had his first clear chance to overtake his rival for the title, but Verstappen was aggressive in defense, and Hamilton went outside the Red Bull and saw both cars driving wide around the corner and on the gravel.

The incident was noticed by the race controllers but Not questioned by maids based on F1 policy of “let them race”. It is rarely used. The idea of ​​”let them compete” dates back many seasons, but it remains a confusing concept that is not written in the rules and is often ignored in favor of the rules of the game and the current rules in the International Code of Sport. For example, “getting another driver off track” is a violation of Article 2 of Chapter IV of the FIA ​​International Sporting Code, Appendix L, which has been used several times this year, especially at the Austrian Grand Prix. Lando Norris Took Mexico off track Sergio ‘Seco’ Perez In curve 4.

Despite the play in Lap 48, Hamilton successfully passed Verstappen after several rounds to take the lead. He won the race, scored 25 points and closed the gap against Verstappen with 14 drivers on the driving chart. But the play does not end there.

After the flag was hoisted, there were rumors that the Red Bull might protest Mercedes’ victory, but team captain Christian Horner told Sky Sports, “We are not going to fight in this match.”. The way he expresses himself seems to open the door to a resistance in another round of the championship, perhaps as clear-cut on some issues from the Red Bull FIA. Despite the hope that Mercedes will be able to defend itself against any opposition to the legitimacy of its car, there is still a chance of opposition in the last three races as inter-team relations are so bad.

Later, Mercedes lined up for his group photo and was about to open the champagne, when his team manager, Ron Meadows, was called to the maids office, where Hamilton unbuttoned his seatbelt after checking the flag to illustrate it. . In the video Hamilton shrugs his shoulders and waves to the crowd holding the Brazilian flag. There was really no protection for Hamilton’s actions, so the driver was punished with financial fines because he risked himself and set a bad example for younger drivers in the category. This all seems reasonable, but when the maids first called Meadows “what now?” There was the notion of. After several trips to the maids office on the weekends.

The fall of the Brazilian Grand Prix continues unbelievably when F1 comes to Qatar for the next round. When an additional video of the Lab 48 incident of Verstappen’s car was released on Tuesday, Mercedes claimed the right to reconsider the decision without questioning the Red Bull driver. The front-facing camera angle of Verstappen’s car is not available to maids, so it is entirely possible to change your mind about whether the trial is guaranteed and whether a fine should be imposed.

Breaking later than Hamilton and not being able to mount the steering system at an angle that would take him anywhere near the top or make sure he was staying on track, the pictures show Verstappen being very confident in his approach to the corner. But very few people know how to operate a tire-to-tire car in that situation, so whether he did something inappropriate will be decided by two former drivers of the Brazilian commission of commissioners, Vitontonio Luci and Roberto Moreno. .

Luci competed in 80 Grand Prix between 2005 and 2011, before Red Bull and its junior team, Toro Rosso, were removed from his driving program. Moreno’s experience is very limited and he last competed in F1 in 1995. If you accept Mercedes’ review rights, his expert opinions on whether Verstappen made a real effort to take a corner or want to tackle Hamilton’s run will be crucial to getting the level out of the way.

It is unclear what that result will be or when it will be announced, but now the season is entering its final three rounds One of the most exciting championship battles in recent memory, there is a real risk of being determined behind closed doors in a maid’s office instead of the path.

Why was Mercedes upset by the decisions of the other maids?

The technical rules of Formula One are complex but very simple to implement. If you fail one of the post-session tests, your car maids will be notified and the maids are obligated to disqualify the competitor from the results (the test was performed correctly and the car actually failed).

Another recent example of a similar situation is disqualification Kimi Rக்கோikknen In the 2019 Azerbaijan Grand Prix qualifying round, Raikkonen’s Alfa Romeo failed the front wing deflection test due to damage in the previous race and was eliminated from the qualifying results in Baguio. In that event, the team also had to change the wing profile for the race because it went without the original space, resulting in Sunday starting from the pits.

However, there are also histories of cars failing the test due to damage, which were not reported to the maids. These are very difficult to verify as the official documents have never reached the level of circulation. But according to some sources, car parts that are easily damaged against obstacles such as the front of the car floor have failed defection tests due to damage and the parts have simply been replaced without penalty.

It is not uncommon for teams to have cars repaired throughout the racing weekend, and a list of replacement parts will be published prior to each race. Teams are known to strengthen parts in the event of damage to the spoilers or by suspending them with carbon fiber. However, such repairs within the brand must be done with the utmost care under the protocol of ‘closed park’ so that the car’s profile does not change or when parts are glued and its shape changed, they do not meet the standards.

We’ll talk about incredibly small margins that don’t offer performance benefits, but this was true in the case of the Mercedes TRS. Mercedes continues to refer to Red Bull Repair in Mexico as clues as to whether such repairs may be questionable in the future and will not take much time, including pasting some surfaces of the wing. Open one. Pandora’s box of questions or even rival car protests.

If Wolf News “The time for diplomacy is over” He said it seriously, so there is a risk that the study areas and the maids office and the track will then be raced.