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Liuzzi confident mirror ruling won't hurt Force India

Force India is one of the teams with sidepod-mounted mirrors © Sutton Images

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Tonio Liuzzi has welcomed the decision to ban mirrors mounted on car's sidepods and is confident Force India's performance won't be damaged as a result.

The FIA has told all teams that mirrors must be mounted next to the cockpit in time for the Spanish Grand Prix, after a number of drivers complained rear view visibility was being hampered by mirrors being mounted on flimsy aerodynamic devices away from the driver. Liuzzi said moving the mirrors on his Force India won't have a negative effect but expects it could cause problems for other teams.

"We've done some studies on the aerodynamic side and for us we can't see any serious downside to moving them closer to the driver," he told ESPNF1 in his post-Malaysia column. "We are quite confident that it will affect some other teams though, because in the past there has been a significant gain in putting them out there on certain cars. But like I said, we are confident and it's possible we will have changed them even for the next race in Shanghai."

He added that he supports the FIA ruling, after he was caught out in traffic during qualifying in both Bahrain and Australia.

"I think it's a good decision overall because in qualifying this year the traffic is becoming more of a problem," he said. "Sometimes it is pretty difficult to see a car behind you, because the vibrations are quite high and that makes it difficult to see clearly when the mirrors are mounted out wide like that. By bringing them closer to the cockpit you will reduce that vibration and that has to be a good thing when there are 24 F1 cars all on track at once. In Bahrain and Australia my qualifying was ruined because I hit traffic, so I know exactly how it feels to be on the receiving end of the problem. It's been unfortunate for me because that is the main reason I was behind my team-mate Adrian [Sutil] in qualifying at those two races."

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