A Mercedes admission banned engine trick was ‘not so safe’

The FIA’s intervention in banning a Formula 1 qualifying trick used by Mercedes and Red Bull has been welcomed by one of the drivers who gained from it but also endured its “not so safe” side.As revealed by The Race, Mercedes and Red Bull were informed ahead of the Miami Grand Prix that a clever loophole they had exploited to get around power reduction limits in qualifying would no longer be allowed.The squads had managed to avoid needing to steadily ramp down energy deployment on the run to the timing line at the end of qualifying laps by activating an emergency mode that immediately cut off their MGU-K instead.The consequence of doing this, however, was that it then put the MGU-K out of action – known as continuous offset mode – for 60 seconds. This meant no further battery power was available to the drivers.While in normal circumstances for a post-qualifying cool down lap, this would not …