Lewis Hamilton’s comments on Red Bull’s “bendable wing” over the weekend of the Spanish Grand Prix gave birth to a saga about the flexibility of the rear wing, operated by a number of teams.
The FIA wrote to the teams announcing that starting with the French Grand Prix, they would be restricting rear wing designs and triggering a variety of reactions up and down the paddock.
Mercedes and McLaren both wondered why the more stringent tests weren’t introduced earlier. Toto Wolff warned that there could be a “very chaotic” protest situation at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix next weekend if the FIA does not give clarity sooner.
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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 could be particularly effective at the Baku City Circuit, which has both a slow section and one of the longest straights on the F1 calendar.
But Vasseur denied that it would, believing there wouldn’t be a huge performance advantage in Baku.
“We have to be serious about the wings, that there is no game changer at all,” said Vasseur.
“I think with Ferrari we showed that with this type of layout [in Monaco] we play. Maybe it is the same in Azerbaijan.
“In Azerbaijan you have two different parts of the route. You have the city, and the philosophy of that part of the route is very close to Monaco. And then you have the 2.5 kilometers or something of straights.
“It will probably be a little more difficult, but it is the way it is.”
Vasseur expanded his position in the Flexi Wing saga in an exclusive interview with Motorsport.com’s sister publication Motorsport. 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 push the envelope in every area. This is the philosophy of F1. And that is the philosophy of every single team, and that [is like that] In terms of weight, design and every single subject, we have to go to our limits.
“And suddenly I don’t know why – maybe just because this one team complained a week ago – we had a new technical guideline.
“I think it’s a shame to be clearing up so late because I think all the teams asked for clarification much earlier. And we also have to take into account the fact that we are all working together to keep the costs down to lower.
“We’ve had a lot of discussions to see if we need to cut staff on the track by one or two, and so on and so forth. And then they come [up] With this type of TD we have to redesign the wings and produce new wings.
“I’m not talking about the performance penalty because honestly 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 my approach will change because I have to spend a large part of my development budget on it. And that’s unfair to me.”
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