Why Red Bull are not protesting Mercedes' rear wing

Red Bull has been looking at Mercedes' top speed for races. So how is it that the German team have found so much speed since the British Grand Prix? Red Bull seem to have found the answer, with signs of damage on Mercedes' rear wing. The Austrian team claims it is flexible.

No protest from Red Bull after all

Whereas the flexible rear wing of Red Bull (and five other teams) was banned because Mercedes had pointed it out to the FIA, it is now Red Bull's turn to put pressure on Mercedes. That seems to be working, because according to the Red Bull Racing team boss, Mercedes didn't use the wing in question in Qatar.

''In the race we saw the speeds on the straight in line with our expectations. That's for the first time in a lot of races and that's encouraging," the Briton said according to Motorsport-total.com. Mercedes is said to have taken the safe option in view of a possible protest from Red Bull, but also had to take into account new tests by the FIA.

Just as fast as Mercedes

Although the FIA would not yet penalise teams for failing to comply with this test, a test was done in Qatar with the rear wings under a certain pressure. This was recommended to the FIA by Adrian Newey, who had discovered that Mercedes' wing moved backwards under that particular pressure.

"I'm glad it's being watched with these new tests. By doing this you eliminate the chance of breaking rules," said Horner, who immediately saw the result during the race. ' 'It was encouraging that for the first time since Silverstone we were able to keep up with them (Mercedes) on the straight,'' concludes Verstappen's team boss.