The FIA has revealed that almost half of the Formula 1 grid made rear wing changes ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix in response to a new technical directive.
F1’s governing body has been combatting wing flex over the last 12 months and ahead of the 2025 season unveiled new measures on wing stiffness.
Limitations to front wing flexibility are scheduled for Round 9 in Spain, but the FIA wanted to limit rear wing flex on the uppermost plane to 2mm under load-bearing tests from the season opener.
This was to combat the ‘mini-DRS’ effect developed through rear wing flexibility, but after monitoring teams in Australia, the FIA introduced a new technical directive for China, limiting flexibility to 0.5mm, with a 0.25mm China-only tolerance.
Alpine openly admitted it was forced to make changes, whereas Haas declared it was right on the brink of the new limitations, but hadn’t had to change its Melbourne rear wing.
Moreover, the top teams didn’t admit to making changes, but FIA Single Seater Director Nikolas Tombazis has revealed several outfits had to stiffen up their rear wings.
“I’m hopeful it’ll be enough this time,” said Tombazis (via Motorsport-Total.com) of the new directive.
“I think four or five weren’t [compliant], and they had to make changes [for China].”
The FIA was clear that all teams were legal with the previous rules in Australia.
How the FIA will police F1 wing flexibility
Tombazis added that the FIA will continue to use load-bearing tests and camera monitoring to ensure teams are adhering to wing flexibility rules, believing such methods to be suitable.
“We continue to use cameras, simply to be safe,” he said.
“But ‘safe’ is actually a word I want to avoid, because it’s a rather complex phenomenon that causes this effect.”
“Basically, we mainly use the results of the load tests and combine that with the camera data.
“That way we ensure we don’t miss any tricks. Camera images alone would not only lead us to involve the stewards.
“They’re more likely to initiate a more detailed investigation, where we might discover that a team is using non-linear characteristics or a mechanism. Then we’d have reason to report it.”
Tomnazis concluded that the FIA is “reasonably satisfied at the moment,” with the teams’ approach to rear wing flexibility.
“That shouldn’t be seen as arrogance – the teams are obviously still trying to get the most out of their cars, and we have to remain vigilant,” he added
“Our view is: A car that passes the FIA tests is generally legal, unless there are hidden mechanisms or things based on non-linear properties, temperatures, or similar things. In such cases, we intervene.
“In principle, we would never report a team that has passed the tests to the stewards. But specifically on this issue, and for precisely these reasons, the rules give us the right to conduct additional stiffness tests.”
READ MORE – Alpine forced into change as Red Bull debates impact of flexi-wing clampdown
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