After Lewis Hamilton’s comments on Red Bull’s “bendy wing” during the Spanish Grand Prix weekend, a saga began about the flexibility of the rear wing, operated by a number of teams.
The FIA wrote to the teams announcing that they would take action against rear wing designs from the French Grand Prix, which sparked a variety of reactions in the paddock.
Mercedes and McLaren both asked why the more stringent tests weren’t introduced earlier. Toto Wolff warned that the Azerbaijan Grand Prix next weekend could lead to a “very chaotic” protest situation if the FIA did not clarify this earlier.
Alfa Romeo team principal Vasseur was particularly unhappy with the ruling, calling it a “joke” after redirecting resources to use the rules as originally written.
Suggestions have been made that the Flexi-Wings might be particularly effective on the Baku City Circuit, which has both a slow section and one of the longest straights on the F1 calendar.
However, Vasseur denied that it would, believing that there would be no great performance advantage in Baku.
“We have to be serious about the wings so that it doesn’t become a game changer at all,” said Vasseur.
“I think with Ferrari we showed it on this type of layout [in Monaco] we perform. Maybe it will be the same in Azerbaijan.
“There are two different sections of the route in Azerbaijan. You have the city, and the philosophy of this stretch of the route is pretty close to Monaco.
The pit lane of the Baku City Circuit
Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images
“It will probably be a little more difficult, but it is what it is.”
Vasseur expanded his position in the Flexi-Wing saga in an exclusive interview with the sister publication of Autosport Motorsport.com Italy, saying that this could change his approach after investing time and money in the design concept.
“I don’t write the rules, the FIA did, then we designed the car with the published rules,” said Vasseur.
“We have to go to the limit in every single area. That is the F1 philosophy. And that is the philosophy of every single team, and that [is like that] We have to go to the limit when it comes to weight, design and every single topic.
“And suddenly I don’t know the reason anymore – maybe just because this one team started complaining a week ago – we had a new technical guideline.
“I think it’s a shame to be so late with the clarification because I think that all the teams asked for clarification much earlier. And we also have to take into account that we are all working together to make great efforts to reduce costs.
“We had a lot of discussions about whether we should reduce the staff on the track by one or two people and so on and so on and so on. And then they come then [up] with this type of TD and we have to redesign the wings and produce new wings.
“I’m not talking about the performance penalty because, to be honest, we’ve played a couple of times in a row and it’s not much of a drama and it won’t change the approach.
“But in the end it will change my approach because I have to spend a large part of my development budget on it. And that’s unfair for me.”
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