The FIA has instructed Ferrari to remove the winglets on its Halo mounted mirrors at the end of the Spanish Grand Prix weekend.

While the Italian team had announced ahead of the weekend that its Halo device would incorporate mirrors, many felt the 'winglets' that Ferrari argues are part of the mounting system, serve a clear aerodynamic purpose.

A number of teams voiced their concern to the FIA - while no doubt secretly considering such devices themselves - and now the sport's governing body has instructed the Italian team to remove the winglets before the next race, in Monaco.

Speaking at the start of the weekend, Nikolas Tombazis, the FIA's technical boss admitted his doubts over the mirrors and Ferrari's intention.

"Mirrors are nasty aerodynamic shapes," he told reporters, "and teams would ideally want not to have any mirrors at all.

"Clearly there's a regulation requiring mirrors to be in certain positions and have a certain amount of visibility," he continued. "So I'm sure that when a team comes forward and says, 'We want to mount it here' it is because they feel it's going to be a bit better aerodynamically, we have no doubt about it. That includes halo mounting as well.

"Now it is our responsibility to make sure that the rules are specific enough, and we hope to also make improvements in the future, to make sure the mirrors achieve their real function, which is to be able to see at the back, and to stop them being used for aerodynamic purposes.

"But as long as there is a big device somewhere in the air teams will always worry about the aerodynamic effect. So it's our responsibility to regulate it properly."

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Greg, 13/05/2018 20:00

"Once again a new rule to beat someone who comes up with another solution no one else thought of but dont want to change their cars. So complain get a new rule that bans it, they think of another solution and hey presto another rule will appear"

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2. Posted by Yeyox02, 12/05/2018 19:23

"It looks like the front of an old passenger bus."

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3. Posted by Pete, 12/05/2018 15:50

"What amuses me is that they have been deemed illegal but will be used in tomorrow's race."

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4. Posted by Insane Reindeer, 12/05/2018 13:32

"I don't know why the teams bother these days. Every single thing they try to make their cars faster (the whole aim of F1 being a competition as to whose car can cover the race distance the fastest) gets shot down by either the "fans" and then Liberty who then strong arm the FIA into changing the rules, or in this case, the FIA say "yeah looks good", then the other teams clarify it, the FIA release that this is going to end up being an area the teams will spend some money on, so they can it all in the name of "money saving". I really don't know why the teams bother anymore. "

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Ferrari instructed to remove Halo winglets after Spain

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