Three races into the season the FIA have declared outboard mirrors too dangerous and have banned them. The ban was to come in at the forthcoming Chinese Grand Prix, but after the teams complained of time constraints, it will instead be introduced from May's Spanish race. Ferrari were the first team to place their mirrors on the extremities of their car's sidepods back in 2006 (see drawing). Since then several teams have designed similar solutions, and currently six - Ferrari, Red Bull, Williams, BMW Sauber, Force India and HRT - are using mirrors attached to the vertical turning vanes in front of the sidepods. Mirrors don't usually have a good aerodynamic shape, but by putting them in the flow of air coming from the front tyres - an area already disturbed by drag - their negative influence is reduced. The difference they make is thought to be approximately half of one-tenth of a second per lap.
Ferrari F10 - new floor
Ferrari tested a new floor in Malaysia that included an opening in front of the rear tyres, something only McLaren have had from the beginning of the season. Its purpose is to feed air to the side channel of the rear diffuser in order to increase its efficiency. This solution was taken off the Ferrari on Saturday at Sepang, but we will probably see it again in China. The team also introduced cooling vanes beside the cockpit due to the hot conditions, but again these were not used on Saturday.
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