FIA Bans Outboard Mirrors in F1

The outboard mirrors will be banned from Formula One from as early as the Chinese Grand Prix, scheduled in mid-April. The information was revealed by British publication Autosport, whose reporters apparently found out that the International Automobile Federation (FIA) will ban the aforementioned device after this weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix.

Shortly after last weekend's race in Australia, we had reported to you that some of the drivers in the F1 paddock were quite critic of the new mirrors due to poor visibility claims. The former president of the Grand Prix Drivers Association (GPDA) Pedro de la Rosa was the first one to speak out – as he was fined by the stewards after impending another driver during the Saturday practice – insisting that the new design of the mirrors provides low visibility on the track.

“The reality is that the mirrors on the sidepods, they give you very small vision of what is happening behind and they vibrate a lot so you see very little. Everyone has the same problem, but since the mirrors have gone outboard this is a problem - as they are aerodynamic devices now,” said the Spaniard.

With every little detail of an F1 car now developed based on its aerodynamic properties, the teams have gone out of their way to debuting some drastic mirror designs, such as Red Bull and Ferrari.

F1 veteran Rubens Barrichello also shared his thoughts on the new mirrors, echoing De la Rosa's comments into criticizing the new design.

“I hope we put a proposal as the GPDA to see if we can have the mirrors back to where they belong – and it is something we mentioned in the drivers' briefing on Friday. The problem for me is that we are driven by the aerodynamics, but the mirrors situated on the aero stuff vibrates,” said the Brazilian driver, hinting that the drivers fully discussed this topic within their GPDA meeting in Melbourne last weekend.