Mercedes' W13 mirror design will come under scrutiny at a meeting of Formula 1's Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) on Tuesday. Mercedes rolled out a heavily revised W13 for last week's Bahrain test, with extremely streamlined sidepods and a unique mirror design. However, the mirrors immediately drew the eye of several teams, due to the apparent use of them for aerodynamic purposes. This has resulted in a slightly ambiguous situation, due to the technical regulations suggesting that aerodynamic influences be "incidental to its main function" and that "any design which aims to maximise that aerodynamic influence is prohibited". As a result, Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto indicated that discussions would need to be held to discuss how teams are permitted to design such mirrors, with those talks set to go ahead as part of the agenda for the TAC meeting.
What is the Technical Advisory Committee?
As the name suggests, the Technical Advisory Committee is only an advisory body within Formula 1, so what will be discussed during the meeting is not (yet) binding. The TAC consists of technical representatives from each of the Formula 1 teams. The TAC includes Nikolas Tombazis, the FIA's Head of Single-Seater Technical Matters. The 10 teams and the FIA representative discuss technical matters in the meeting and can vote on certain topics. If the TAC finds that rules need to be tightened up or adjusted, the matter will pass to the F1 Commission for further discussion and voting. "We always assess rules for following years, and we assess whether things are clear," Tombazis told media, including RacingNews365.com , during Bahrain testing. "When there are new rules, sometimes certain things may not have been phrased as well as we intended. "I think, by and large, the level of discrepancy is quite low from what was intended, but there are a few little areas, and we'll discuss that with the teams. "We'll have another TAC meeting on Tuesday, to discuss these matters."
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