Mercedes didn't use controversial wheels in Brazil due to championship fears

Mercedes did not run their controversial wheel rim design during the Brazilian Grand Prix due to fears of a protest. With the constructors' championship yet to be secured, the team did not want to run the risk of expulsion from the race.

Despite the design being cleared by the FIA as fully legal, the team have not used the rim design since talks of a Ferrari protest after the Japanese Grand Prix on the grounds that the holes in the wheel rims could be construed as a moveable aero device, something that has been outlawed by the governing body.

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said that the team did not want to risk running the design until they had secured the championship.

“We didn’t want to have a protest with a possible quad-ruling weeks down the line, when we deem these spacers not to be fundamentally responsible for performance.

“And I can assure that you that our assessment is that the problems that we had these three races were not linked to the spacers. It’s a more overall concept.”

With their fifth-straight constructors' championship wrapped up with Lewis Hamilton's race victory in Brazil and Valtteri Bottas' fourth place, could the wheel rim design return for the season finale at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi?