Once more, the much heralded 2017 Formula One season has not even started and already we have a question of which team came up with which loophole not-cheat first. A day after Mercedes showed off its how-many-wings-was-that car, Ferrari has shown its new racer with a very similar rear setup.
Yesterday we pointed out how Mercedes has a little wing sproutlet-thing in front of its main rear wing, looking every bit like a leftover from 2016's regulations that F1's rulemakers forgot about.
Today we got to see the Ferrari SF70H and it sports the same wing-tree as the Mercedes. The difference is that Ferrari also has a tailfin, unlike the Mercedes. The wing thing mounts right on it.
F1 tech guru Craig Scarborough calls this ‘the T-Wing,’ though I am a personal fan of wing-sprout:
I should point out now that the new McLaren that came out today does not have any T-Wing to speak of. If Ferrari was copying Mercedes, you’d think that McLaren would have done the same. At this point, I think it’d only be fair to say that Mercedes and Ferrari probably independently found the same loophole.
That’s not to say that F1 doesn’t have a history of teams looking over each other’s shoulders, though.
I cannot get over how cutthroat F1 is getting in this newer, looser aero year. The season hasn’t even started!