FIA race director Charlie Whiting has rejected the need to investigate two hotly debated topics in Formula 1 currently, Mercedes’ “party mode” and Haas’ relationship with Ferrari.
After the opening weekend of the new season in Australia just over a week ago, Red Bull chiefs called for the governing body to curb the engine advantage the world champions currently have, particularly in qualifying where the “party mode” allowed Lewis Hamilton to take pole by two-thirds of a second.
However, asked if their request had any merit, Whiting claimed there were no grounds on which the FIA could intervene.
“Whatever party mode is, I’ve not seen it written in any technical documents!” he told Motorsport.com.
“Put it like this. If Mercedes customers come to us and say, ‘We’ve asked for party mode and we’re not getting it,’ then we might have something to say about it.”
The Briton also doubted banning a special power mode would have an impact anyway, adding: “There are all sorts of modes on these engines, and we know full well that they change at various times during the race.”
On the second issue, several midfield teams including Force India and McLaren have called into question the legality of Haas’ 2018 car, which some have called a “clone” of the 2017 car designed by technical partner Ferrari.
“We know exactly what’s going on between Haas and Ferrari,” Whiting was quoted by F1i.com. “[It] is completely legal.
“Last year we had one team expressing some concerns but we have not seen anything that concerns us at the moment.”
Force India COO Otmar Szafnauer remains sceptical, however, claiming: “I don’t know how it can be right for a team who has been in the sport for a couple of years with no resources to produce a car like this.”
