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Some interesting tweaks to the rules over the summer break that suggest there was a gray area...
The FIA is banning asymmetrical braking (left/right) on F1 cars.. basically brake steer to help rotate the car and also stick the diffuser closer to the ground in some cases... That was not explicitly banned before, and will be, starting at Zandvoort - and it's highly likely some teams were using it, especially places like Austria that's mostly right turns where McLaren was really good. It will be interesting to see if any team appears to have lost a step next race.
Another tweak comes from Sainz stuffing his car in the wall in China and creating a red flag but still being able to rejoin qualifying despite causing this situation. No more, if the driver needs physical help, he will not be allowed to rejoin quali...
Finally a penalty received in a sprint race will be applied to the main race if it was not served during said sprint. (Alonso in china also)
On Mercedes being underweight - more clarifications from the team... Lewis and George's car were barely 500 grams apart after qualifying... So whatever happened was 100% during the race and tire wear based primarily + lack of marbles pickup as we all guessed.. But also plank wear caused by the above worn tires (lowering the car slightly) contributed... Tire wear, plank wear, brake wear, oil being burned, even the pilots lose weight ;-) Only George was under weight, Lewis' car with less worn tires was fine and the plank wear was much higher on Russell car. They've also asked Pirelli to supply a scale of tire weight loss as they wear out as useful data for the future.
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