It was always a funny shunt, no cameras really covering the cars properly at that point as it's a strange place to go off. During the live coverage FOM tried in vain to find definitive vid of the incident so nearly everyone had to guess until later on.
Post race interviews suggested that Kimi had started the whole thing off and Nando's contact was secondary and unavoidable. Always going to be called as a racing incident anyway, IMHO, it being on the first lap.
On the real point of your post Scotty I'm inclined to think Macca are pulling our legs, why on earth would you run the one and only short front wing in the race anyway if you need it for back to back testing.
Now if they were fighting for points at the front end there may be a good excuse to risk the one and only part in a race, but not when you beset by engine(sorry Power unit) problems, are hit by penalties on top, meaning you will probably never see the points finishers let alone score any.
This ranks alongside the Merc gaff at Monaco if true.