Because Lewis Hamilton’s rear wing failed the FIA tests in Brazil, the Mercedes driver was disqualified from Friday’s qualifying. Red Bull suspected something was wrong with the W12 car prior to qualifying, although Toto Wolff says the problem only arose during the session.
“We got the rear wing back afterwards and we thought it was broken,” the Mercedes team boss explains to RacingNews365, among others. According to Wolff, something broke during qualifying. “We failed the test with the 85 millimeter hole on the right side of the wing. It was a fraction of one millimeter, but that’s fine.”
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Loose screws the problem according to Wolff
The rear wing was confiscated by the FIA, which means that Mercedes could no longer prove that the part was broken during qualifying. “Later we saw that two screws came loose during qualifying. As a result, the right side was not as it should be.”
“It was even detrimental to our lap time, but it is what it is. We have let the stewards know, but it is very different from how things like this were treated in the past. Previously they were allowed to repair parts that broke during parc firm.”
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