Why have Mercedes and Red Bull been told by FIA to change their front-wing parts?

Mercedes have been a chartbuster of sorts in F1. Have they not? No other team in the past half a decade of motor-racing at the highest level has allowed any team to dominate the proceedings at the front the way Mercedes have.

But right now, it seems, not all’s well in the world of Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport.

Not everything in the realm of Formula 1 is only restricted to speed. A lot about the sport boils down to finer details and technicalities in which rests the sport’s real depth. To that end, there’s never an easy day in Formula 1 or is there? In a sport so utterly embedded in uncertainties, what can possibly go wrong for a team other than it breaking a rule or let’s just say, ‘crossing the line?

In regards to the above, apparently, the FIA has told both Mercedes and Red Bull to adhere to 2019 regulations. In that regard, one may find it a bit shocking that both outfits- one led by Toto Wolff and the other by Christian Horner– have been ordered to change their ‘front-wing’ design for the upcoming Chinese Grand Prix.

The race on Sunday, of course, happens to be the 1000th Formula 1 race- no small achievement or feat by any stretch of the imagination.

To that end, won’t it be a bit both shocking on the part of the two’s fans and telling on the part of the teams to be involved in a situation where the FIA have to intervene so that two frontrunners at the grid get their act together?

Well, F1 is a strange complex world anyways, isn’t it?

So here’s what’s exactly happened.

Apparently, Deutschland’s revered publication Auto Motor was among the first F1 journals that pointed an anomaly in the design of the Mercedes 2019 F1 car; one that has fallen foul of the 2019 F1 regulations.

It appears that there’s a cut-out at the top of the endplate of the current Mercedes AMG F1 W10, the 2019 contender from the stable of the Wolff-led outfit.

The above told it’s important to note that all the main elements of an F1 car’s front-wing should adhere to a regulation: that they should not be visible when viewed from the side.

And as per the latest reports, there’s been a bit of a discussion on the issue since another portal- racefans.net- has called the German journal’s report a bit off the mark and have suggested that the FIA instead has requested both teams to change the front edges of their endplates.

This, it is believed, would help minimize the chance of causing a puncture to the other cars in a race.

That said, one can’t deny that both Ferrari and Alfa Romeo have basically gone for a different design concept this year, albeit in total compliance with this year’s regulations.