Aston Martin believes the FIA’s upcoming crackdown on Flexi-Wings could cost some Formula 1 teams up to 0.5 seconds per lap.
A number of outfits, including Red Bull, Ferrari, Alpine, and Alfa Romeo, have used clever aero designs to flex their wings at high speed for straight-line thrust.
However, the FIA fears its designs could violate rules prohibiting moving aerodynamic devices, so it is introducing more stringent rear wing tests at the French Grand Prix.
While the exact time advantage of the Flexi-Wings is difficult to determine, Aston Martin team boss Otmar Szafnauer assumes that it could be in the region of half a second on some routes.
In addition, it is also of greater value for higher rake vehicles where the natural angle of the aerodynamics is in a position that offers more drag than a low rake concept.
“It’s very track-specific,” said Szafnauer. “On some tracks it doesn’t help much at all, and on others it helps to have a flexi rear wing.
“I kind of think it’s going to get in our way [low-rake] a little, maybe a few tenths of a second per lap or so on average. But there are some stretches where you don’t get any benefit and others it can take up to half a second. “
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According to Aston Martin, the initial analysis shows that no changes need to be made to the design of the rear wing to meet the new tests.
Szafnauer has also endorsed Mercedes and McLaren’s view that the delay in introducing the new tests until the French Grand Prix is incorrect.
He suggests the given headroom is too long and believes teams have the ability to stiffen the rear wings pretty quickly.
“Designing something that flexes just the right amount and passes the test, but still flexes, takes a lot of effort,” he said. “But designing something that’s stiff doesn’t take any effort at all. And it can be done very, very quickly.”
Szafnauer also confirmed that his talks with the FIA about implementing the aero rule changes for this year, which hurt low-rake teams like Aston Martin more, had come to a satisfactory conclusion.
“I think that was put to bed,” he said. “We had good conversations and discussions and tried to understand the process and how it worked. I think there will be nothing more.”
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