The directors’ press conference was expected this morning and the FIA has invited a number of technical directors to Paul Ricard.
Andrew Shovlin, chief track engineer, was in charge of representing Mercedes F1 and he was asked to start the accusations from Red Bull who believe that Mercedes F1 and its customers (except Williams) are lobbying the FIA to change the 2023 F1 floors.
« It’s difficult to separate politics and technique in F1. The reality is that we are looking to solve our own problems and we have made progress. »
« You can understand that teams don’t want the regulations to change. But we don’t know if a change in the regulations would suit us. »
« If you think back to 2020 and 2021, we had no idea that this rule change was going to hurt a low rear ride height car like ours and hardly affect a high ride height car. »
« So we are certainly not in a position to say that the regulatory changes will definitely be in favor of Mercedes. »
“Our position is that if we want to solve some of the fundamental problems of these F1s with ground effect, it will not be done by leaving the rules like that.
“When this rule came into effect in 2020 for safety reasons, Red Bull did not object to it, Ferrari did not object to it from a governance point of view, but above all, Mercedes did not object to that change while we were dominating. It happened, it didn’t suit us but it happened. »
Shovlin reiterates on safety argument
What will happen then? Will a news hardly ever break?
« At the meeting, some teams wanted change, some didn’t want change and I think the compromise just came from teams who thought there was going to be a change but to make it as small as possible. «
« But as we said at that meeting, as teams – we can probably all admit that – there have been a few notable incidents this year where the car hit the ground with the wooden board, the pilot loses control, runs over a curb and it lands them in the barrier at high speed. »
« The safety argument is therefore as much to be taken into account as comfort because of the rebounds. »
« What we would like is clarity. Are they going to change it? And if so, let’s move on and agree? »
« The reality is that these cars will always drive close to the ground, they will always bump into the track. And, while you can mitigate that and improve it, if we really want to fundamentally change that, then there will have to be a clear change in the regulations. . »
