F1 teams can’t run 2019 front wings at post-season test

Formula 1 teams will not be permitted to evaluate 2019-spec front wings at next month’s post-season test in Abu Dhabi.

Formula 1 will stay on at the Yas Marina Circuit for two days of running following the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, with all 10 teams allowed to field one car.

The sport is to introduce revised front wing regulations in 2019 designed to reduce outwash – the first step in a bid to minimise the effect of dirty air for a pursuing car.

Force India and Williams trialled a prototype 2019-spec front wing during in-season running in Hungary.

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The revised front wings will be 200mm wider, 25mm deeper, and feature simplified endplates and wing components.

But as the end-of-season gathering is officially designated as a tyre test, with Pirelli running its 2019 compounds, next year’s front wings will not be allowed.

It means teams will not be able to test the modified specifications on track until next February’s opening pre-season running at Barcelona.

“I think people would have been interested in doing it in the post-season test but that's now been clarified, we can't do it,” said Renault technical chief Nick Chester.

“Otherwise everyone would have turned up with a wide front wing. We'd have done it.”

On the front wing designs, Chester added: “I think they [the front wings] will look fairly similar [to each other] because a lot of it’s very prescribed but there could be some interesting differences in detail.

“And because the front wing is such a big performance driver those details could matter, so I’m sure everyone’s thinking hard about the details.”