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Outboard Mirrors Ban Delayed Until Spanish GP

Yesterday, we had reported to you that the FIA decided to ban the outboard mirrors from Formula One starting the Chinese Grand Prix, in mid-April. The change was made following several safety-related concerns issued by the drivers after the Australian Grand Prix, when F1 veterans Pedro de la Rosa and Rubens Barrichello complained about poor visibility in the backfield.

As compared to last season, the teams proceeded to fitting the mirrors away from the cockpit sides, in an effort to further improve the aerodynamics of the car. However, not all teams benefit from such designs, as only Red Bull Racing, Ferrari, Williams, Force India, Sauber and HRT projected their mirrors that way.

Probably in an effort to further reduce the gap between Red Bull/Ferrari and the other teams, the ruling body decided to ban outboard mirrors as soon as possible. Interviewed on the matter, Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel admitted that his team is more concerned with changing the design of the RB6's mirrors that the recent reliability issues experienced by the 2010 challenger, as this will reduce downforce.

Additionally, he revealed that the change has to happen until the Chinese Grand Prix, meaning a 2-week window.

But because the McLaren, Mercedes, Lotus, Virgin, Toro Rosso and Renault teams are not at all affected by the ban, the topic was apparently a bone of contention as bosses met at Sepang on Friday afternoon,” said a report from the GMM news agency, hinting that the FOTA meeting today had this topic on their list of priorities.

Eventually, it was decided that the aforementioned teams that do use this design will have a bigger period of time to make the necessary changes to their 2010 single-seaters, meaning by early May, for the Spanish Grand Prix.
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