With 146 pages and many asterisks, diagrams and footnotes, the manual on the technical regulations of Formula 1 for 2021 is not exactly exciting read for everyone, except for the very dedicated petrol heads among us.
But it’s doused every year by F1 teams trying to squeeze every tiny bit of profit out of their cars before the new season. Teams rely on the principle that once the rules for the season are written, they will not change significantly.
That is, right down to the final excitement surrounding flexible rear wings that some cars have used in this season’s inaugural races – and, if you believe Mercedes, further back.
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It doesn’t seem like much, but every few years a new discussion of Flexi-Wings entangles the sport and leads to changes in the design of the rear wings. The big problem this year, however, is that the controversy started mid-season and the FIA will do something about it.
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What is the “Flexi-Wing” topic?
In motorsport, rear wings are used to transfer the downforce to the rear of the vehicle, which aids grip in corners and increases the vehicle’s maneuverability.
The problem this year arises from Article 3.8 of the FIA regulations, according to which the body “must be firmly attached to the fully sprung part of the vehicle”. However, it has been found that when some cars using a specific rear wing design drive on the straights, the wing bends backwards, which reduces drag. It then corrects itself for corners, which means the car can perform better on the straight without sacrificing performance in the corners.
Lewis Hamilton pointed to Red Bull’s “twisty” wing at the Spanish Grand Prix, and Mercedes claims this gives its rivals a straight-line speed advantage.
However, teams that use the wing design – including Alfa Romeo and Ferrari – argue that it complies with the rules set out in the regulations for the 2021 season and therefore the wing should be considered legal.
F1 divided over wing use
Almost immediately after the weekend in Barcelona, the FIA wrote to all 10 teams informing them that deflection tests would be carried out at the French Grand Prix in mid-June.
One camp – which includes Mercedes and McLaren – doesn’t use the Flexi-Wing and is dissatisfied with the FIA for delaying their tests. In fact, they claim that the teams using the rear wing design in question will have two more races to take advantage of before a decision is made on legality.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has even claimed that the excitement could lead to protests, saying: “It leaves us in no man’s land because the technical guideline states that the movement of some of the rear wings was judged to be excessive.
Ferrari has admitted to using flexible rear wings this season (Photo: AFP)
“If we delay the introduction for any reason, we will find ourselves in a legal vacuum and leave the door open to protest. It’s not just us, but probably two other teams that are most affected, maybe more.
“And then a protest in the ICA could probably end [The FIA’s International Court of Appeal] and that is a messy situation that can take weeks to have a result and we shouldn’t have ended up in that situation. “
And McLaren boss Andreas Seidl said: “For us there is no reason why it was delayed for two more races and give the guys who designed their cars two more races so that these Flexi-Wings can benefit from our point of view, what these people are using is clearly against the law. “
Teams that have used the rear wing design earlier this season are protesting the FIA’s decision to run tests themselves.
Red Bull, Ferrari and Alfa Romeo are just three teams that claim they have stuck to the rules and that changes cannot simply be made in the middle of a season when they don’t think there is anything illegal about their designs.
Red Bull boss Christian Horner has warned that the cost could reach £ 350,000 for teams that may need to change their rear wing designs – a huge hassle for smaller teams, especially in a season when F1 is rolling out its cost cap.
“I think for a team like us, which is obviously against the ceiling, you have to make strategic decisions, of course,” he said.
“The impact of something like this is probably half a million dollars, preventing anything else from happening, but that’s the juggling act we have to do now with the budget cap and financial regulations.”
Alfa Romeo CEO Fred Vasseur believes that while the cost of the changes would have a big impact on his team, the bigger concern is the precedent for the mid-season regulation changes.
“We will have time for it [change the wing]but it will cost us a fortune. We all struggle to save money, to talk, to have fewer people on one line, and then we have things like this that … it’s just a joke. A joke for me, ”he said.
“Everyone was sticking to the limit and the FIA decided to change the limit. It’s a bit of a surprise, but they’ve changed the load and deformation over the season.
“It’s not the introduction of a new test [that is the issue]or a new way of doing the test is by changing a value. And for me this is the first time that we see something like this.
“Because when you are at the limit, when you have done a good job, you have to produce new grand pianos. In terms of cost savings, it’s a huge, huge, huge effort. “
And Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto admitted that his team simply follows the instructions in the rules: “Yes, we use [the rules].
According to Ferrari’s Mattia Binotto, all teams are trying to take advantage of the rules (Photo: Getty).
“I think all teams somehow take advantage of what is possible and what we think is right.”
What happens next?
The discussion about the advantages of the Flexi-Wing will continue for two more races until the FIA makes its assessment. The tests aim to find out if the wings behaved nonlinearly when bent: whether the natural bending expected of an F1 car’s bodywork during the race is exceeded for unfair gains.
It is likely that the FIA considers the rear wing design to be outside the scope of the regulations. However, Horner has pointed out that a later problem for teams using the wing design is to come up with a new design before the next Grand Prix.
“I think there has to be a lead time, you can’t just charm components,” said Horner.
“If they changed the tests on the front wings this weekend and we saw a lot more performance from the flexibility of the front wing, it would affect every single team and some a lot bigger than others.
“There has to be a lead time. You can’t expect parts to be enchanted overnight at no cost.
“The car is compliant with the regulations that have been in place for the past 18 months with these stress tests, and then the regulation was changed, the tests were changed, and there is a notice period for that.”
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