Ferrari still pursuing Mercedes wheel rim case

In a potentially damaging reveal for Mercedes, Ferrari have claimed that they are still not giving up on the supposed illegality of their rival’s wheel rim. The Scuderia believe that holes in the rear hub give Mercedes better aerodynamics.

“We have a Federation that makes the regulations, the technical directives and for the moment I prefer not to comment because the issue is still open,” confirmed Arrivabene. Ferrari had sent a letter of regulatory clarification to the FIA ​​technical department.

Ferrari technicians claimed that the holes in the rear hub and in the circles of the moving silver arrow would have generated a mobile aerodynamic effect, contravening the technical rules of the F1 that impose to “any specific part of the car influencing the aerodynamic performance of be rigidly fixed to the entire suspended part of the car “.

But the holes during the rotation of the wheel inevitably generate an aerodynamic effect that, according to the Ferrari specialists, would still be enough to eliminate the problem that Mercedes has dragged from the beginning of the season.

That is to say the overheating of the tires. Therefore it can not be said that the solution is irrelevant to the performance and that’s why the FIA ​​would have passed the strange principle of “limited illegality”. The airflow is there but the aerodynamic effect was considered negligible.

However, this has nothing to do with the two additional “teeth” between one race and the other of the wheel that serve to extract heat from the tires since the rims are hollow and the protuberances function like small “radiators” in contact with air.

The case may still be open but the FIA’s stance on the subject does not bode too well for Ferrari and they may simply have to accept the fact that they committed too many mistakes in the season to wash their hands off the title.

They should be looking forward to next year with a proven world champion and surely a rising star in their team and look to capitalize on it.