I've wondered the same. At this point, it's irrefutable that the 2 low-rake concepts were hurt the most. If the changes were really implemented on the basis of purely slowing the cars down for safety purposes, a reduction in rear wing size would've had an equal impact on all the cars, as opposed to changing one of the most aerodynamically sensitive areas on the car.b2bL44 wrote: ↑31 May 2021, 07:47Notice how the Aston Martin litigation threat has quietly disappeared. I wonder what deal was made to-- 18 LANCE STROLL!zibby43 wrote: ↑31 May 2021, 07:01Hard to say, but I feel like it's worth pointing out that Ross Brawn is with FOM, not the FIA.
As far as I'm aware, it's a big no-no if the promotion arm meddles in the rule-making. I believe that when Aston was threatening litigation earlier this season, one of the reasons was because they were investigating impropriety regarding whether FOM influenced the '21 regulation changes.
I cannot see the same happening in the flexi-wing fight between Mercedes and Red Bull, especially if Red Bull win in Baku this weekend. There's a championship on the line and they'll fight it out to gain an advantage wherever possible.
It just smacks of FOM intervening for the sake of the show since the '22 rules were delayed. But, that being said, it's no fault of the high-rake teams that their concepts were better suited, and they still had to do the job to build quick cars, so fair play to them.
And Mercedes will be prepared to play out every possible contingency. I imagine some of it will depend on data gathered/observations made in FP1 and FP2.