Ferrari are one of a handful of teams that must redesign their rear wing to comply with a technical directive issued by the FIA last week, as it clamps down on bendy, or flexible wings.
Whilst Red Bull’s RB16B has been at the centre of the discussion surrounding flexi-wings, following video footage from the Spanish Grand Prix which showed their rear wing rolling back at high speed – therefore cutting drag and boosting top speed – they are not the only team playing with the rules.
Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto confirmed on Thursday in Monaco that his team would also need to make changes to comply with the updated load tests the FIA are set to carry out from the French GP.
“Yes we are exploiting [the rule],” said Binotto. “I think all the teams are exploiting somehow what’s possible and what we believe is right.
“We will need to slightly adapt. I don’t think it’s impacting Ferrari much, certainly on the lap time, from what we’ve seen, very, very little. But there is some redesign needed to comply fully to the technical directive. But again, I think as Ferrari, it’s not impacting us much but the redesign is required.”
Red Bull’s Christian Horner estimated that redesigning their rear wing would cost around $500,000 and this would come at the expense of other developments due to the budget cap.
“I think for a team like us running up against the cap then strategically you have to make choices. The impact of something like this is probably about half a million dollars. That will prevent something else from happening, but that’s the juggling act we are now having to make with the budget cap and financial regs.”
Whilst Ferrari and Red Bull will need to make changes, both McLaren and Williams have confirmed their wings would pass the stricter load tests, whilst Mercedes’ Toto Wolff joked they would redesign their wing to be more flexible.
“For us it doesn’t have any influence because we don’t have to change anything on the car,” said McLaren’s Andreas Seidl. “Our car was compliant with the regulations for the first races and it is compliant now.”
Wolff added: “Yes we will need to modify our wing. We need to soften it, our wing is extremely rigid, complying to the famous Article 3.8 that it must remain immobile. The new test that has been introduced is a half-baked solution which is giving us opportunity; the whole thing can soften and bend more in the future.”
Somehow I doubt it costs a half million dollars to add another layer of carbon fiber on a wing, or make a new brace to prevent it from flexing.
F1 is to the point where the rules are so crippled, it would be better off if they would just got a spec format. Why not just create about 4 or 5 different types of wings, sidepods, etc; and let teams mix and match every weekend. Let them continue to use their own motors, transmissions, etc. This would not only cut costs by at least 50-60%, but also probably provide actual racing, which we haven’t seen much of over the past decade.
That’s not the reason the wing is flexing. It rolls back at high speeds, so simply adding strength to the flap won’t achieve anything. The whole concept needs changing.
Spec series? This is formula 1, a prototype series. Go watch indycar if you want spec racing
So, once again a cheat’s charter! Why on earth cannot the FIA make rules that cannot be circumnavigated, but if they are, clamp down immediately on transgressions. Ross Brawn, poacher turned gamekeeper, should be leading this, feeding back info from F1 scrutineers, who appear to be incompetent, to the FIA. Jj seems to be saying F1 should not have any rules, it is not a “prototype” series, it is the leading FIA single seat open wheel formula with supposedly strict rules!