Um, how about because the change to the current generation car was THE BIGGEST single change in Formula 1. Merc got the chassis to work with the tires from the get go. Everyone else was left struggling. Clearly, tires are the number one factor in modern racing.
Anyone who has watched F1 in the turbo-hybrid era knows that Mercedes's biggest weakness until 2019 was overworking their tires. By comparison to Ferrari and Red Bull, they could not do longer stints, especially on the softer compounds, which is why you saw Mercedes run the harder compounds as a race tire. That's pretty clear. AMG got the jump on everyone due to their superior power-unit design and a decent enough aero package, not the tires. In 2017 and 2018, they were finally caught by Ferrari who were clearly better on their tires, but were able to capitalize on the Italian team's mistakes.
You are making my point for me. Why, if not for the publicized reason of safety after the blowouts, would a change (that appears to have worked to Mercedes advantage) have been made. Oh wait, maybe I answered my own question.
Teams running into tire trouble because of running the pressures outside of the recommended parameters is not new. Neither is the FIA working with Pirelli issuing directives to stop teams from doing this. There's no evidence to suggest the FIA's motive for this change would be to help Mercedes.
How about the lack of legal action (or any comment whatsoever) from Mercedes? If Renault or Red Bull had pulled onto the grid in 2020 in a Mercedes clone, do you think they would have been silent? I rest my case on that one.
Again, pure speculation on what "could" or "would" have happened. By FIA rules, Everything but the rear brake ducts were legal and above-board. Was it sporting of Racing Point to do this? There is a valid argument for someone to say that it was not in the "spirit" of the rules.
However, if I had to speculate, Mercedes was not worried about a copy-cat car because understanding their concept does not come with the car itself (see Aston Martin's relative performance this year). On top of that, Red Bull would not have copied the Mercedes design as they strongly believe their philosophy of a shorter wheelbase, high-rake design is superior for aerodynamic grip. They've ran this style of car since the 2010s to great success, so other than their power-unit, why would they change?
I'm sure there are plenty of things we aren't privy to as fans, but there's no hard evidence that the FIA is fixing things in Mercedes's favor. Otherwise, they wouldn't have introduced multiple rules to reel them back. The shadiest thing they've done in recent times was their "private agreement" with Ferrari after the technical directive was issued for the fuel flow rates.
Last edited by abm89; 09-30-2021 at 06:22 PM.
Reason: formatting, again
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