• 2010 season

Mirror ruling could cost Red Bull

ESPNF1 Staff
April 2, 2010 « Hamilton fastest in heat of Sepang | »
Outboard mirrors will be banned in China © Sutton Images
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Sebastian Vettel is "concerned" the FIA's decision to ban outboard-mounted mirrors could cost the Red Bull performance, despite team boss Christian Horner insisting the rule change will have minimal effect.

Like close rivals Ferrari - but not McLaren or Mercedes - Red Bull has been asked by the governing body to attach its mirrors to the cockpit sides, rather than on flimsy aerodynamic mountings far away from the driver. The new rule had been set to be implemented at the next round in China, but after a meeting between the teams on Friday, it has been delayed to the start of the European season in Spain.

Asked if he is worried about a recurrence of his recent reliability troubles this weekend, Vettel said: "We are much more concerned that from the next race we'll all have to run the mirrors inboard and our car is losing quite some performance due to that." However, Horner told the BBC a re-jig of the mirror layout would not cause any concerns.

Ferrari's Felipe Massa said he does not think driver visibility needed improving: "For me, I have no problem, but I don't think we are going to lose anything by moving them from one place to another."

Force India, Sauber, Toro Rosso, Williams and HRT are other teams that will need to move their mirrors.

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