Force India's technical chief Andy Green expects this year's season-opening Australian Grand Prix could be mired in protests about 'trick' suspensions, an "unnecessary" controversy he feels Formula One could have easily avoided.
Suspension concepts pioneered by Mercedes and also run by Red Bull have come under scrutiny since Ferrari wrote to the FIA questioning their legality. FIA race director Charlie Whiting is expected to issue the teams a technical directive before testing begins on February 27 to clarify how the governing body interprets that part of the rulebook.
Ferrari's letter queried Article 3.15 of the regulations, which states "any specific part of the car influencing its aerodynamic performance must remain immobile in relation to the sprung part of the car" -- effectively banning moveable aerodynamic devices. The letter asked whether a system similar to one Mercedes' used last year would fall foul of that rule. A technical directive would only be advisory in nature and Green thinks the issue will not be resolved until a team officially takes it to the stewards.
When asked if the controversy could go all the way to the Melbourne race on March 26, Green replied: "Yep. I definitely can see it happening."
He then clarified Force India would not be part of any action, stating the team would "stand back and see how it develops" and then react to whatever the stewards' ruling was. Green believes the controversy could have easily been avoided when F1's new regulations were drawn up last year.
"I think I would have liked more clarity on the suspension side, that really has muddied the waters and it's unnecessary. I think it's under the skin, I don't think [the controversy] is great for the show, the fans don't know any difference, but it can be incredibly complicated, the systems being run, and expensive. For us there are marginal gains for quite substantial expense, so I would have liked to have seen all that nipped in the bud and not been allowed to develop to where it's got to now."
The query comes at an awkward time for teams on the eve of the season and at an advanced stage of development for the 2017 cars -- Green was talking at the launch of his team's challenger for 2017, the VJM10. Force India has considered implementing a concept similar to Mercedes but will not until the controversy is resolved.
"We've been testing various concepts for a while now, each has got some merits. For us we really wanted to see how the tyres performed and how the balance of the tyres.. Where the weakness of the tyres was. So that we can then attack that with a mechanical solution or try to help it with a mechanical solution.
"For us, we can't have all the options on the table ready and waiting based on what the Pirelli tyres perform like. So we have to wait, we're going to wait until we run the car so that we understand what the tyres are doing. And hopefully in that time, the FIA will give everybody some guidance to what is and isn't allowed. That's what we need at the moment."
Pre-season testing starts on February 27, almost exactly a month before the Australian Grand Prix on March 26.