Mirror placement on Formula One cars is expected to change after this weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix, putting the emphasis back on rear vision rather than aerodynamic advantage. While no official announcement was made by F1 authorities, Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel and Williams' Rubens Barrichello both said Thursday that mirror placement would be changed for the following race in China. “As far as I'm concerned its agreed that we need better visibility, so the change could come as early as the next race,” Barrichello said. “Everyone is having problems with the mirrors and hopefully we are going to get that changed quite soon.” Drivers have complained that having mirrors on the sidepods of the cars, to aid aerodynamics, makes them vibrate too much and provides poor rear vision. The change would move the mirrors back inward, onto the main body of the chassis, adjacent to the cockpit, where they would be less subject to vibration. Vettel was concerned that the change may cost Red Bull its speed advantage over the rest of the field, with all teams having to make aerodynamic adjustments as a result. Asked about the general reliability of his car Thursday, Vettel said: “We are much more concerned that from the next race we'll all have to run the mirrors inboard and our car is losing quite some performance due to that.” Winning unlikely: Schumi Michael Schumacher arrived at the Sepang circuit Friday to face much the same kind of inquisition he left behind when he flew out of Melbourne after last weekend's race. The big question, repeated frequently, revolved around his level of performance and potential to improve with his Mercedes team this weekend in the Malaysian Grand Prix. The seven-time world champion, who hopes to improve on finishes of sixth and 10th so far on his comeback trail, both of them behind teammate Nico Rosberg, remained calm and good-humored. “It is great for me to be back and I am very motivated and I am happy to be here,” he said. “Maybe we don't have the car to be at the front just now, but we are working for that, and it is always that way in Formula One. I know that people are talking about my results, but I think we are doing the best we can right now. And anyway, I like to satisfy everybody, but mostly myself, and I am not that upset at all. “I am disappointed that my opinion is different to that of some of the media, at least, but everyone is free to have their own opinion. I am quite happy. I have done the best I could with the possibilities that we have had.” Schumacher, 41, and Rosberg, 24, have pushed hard to gain the competitiveness that their team needs to put pressure on the Red Bull and Ferrari teams. The Germam admitted that more work needed to be done. “We would like to say we are here in a position now to win this race, but certainly that's not the case,” he said. “We're not the most competitive at the moment and there's a lot of development and hard work to do.”
