Max Verstappen, in traditional fashion, maximised the machinery at his disposal at the Australian GP. The Dutchman was McLaren’s closest challenger in Australia, though Red Bull are clearly a few steps behind their Woking-based rivals.
This weekend in China, a new FIA directive will address the growing prevalence of flexible rear wings.
Whilst the impact of this rule change is difficult to pinpoint, there are no doubts that Red Bull will be unaffected.
Red Bull unconcerned by new flexi-wing measures
Over the winter break, the topic of flexi front-wings came to the forefront – following an FIA announcement that stricter tests would be implemented at the Spanish GP.
However, the latest developments regarding wing aeroplasticity have added another dimension to this issue.
In Australia, the FIA used cameras to observe the rear wings of every team across the weekend. This step was taken in order to assess whether further regulations were necessary.
The implementation of harsher tests and a reduction to the amount of flexing permitted sends a resounding message.
Several teams were benefiting from this grey area – at least enough to warrant an FIA clampdown.
Red Bull were not among them, with the Milton Keynes outfit first raising suspicions about rivals using ‘Mini-DRS’ in pre-season testing.
Unlike other front-runners, Red Bull were late to begin pushing the limits of flexi-wings last season.
The Austrian team were instead focused on resolving the more underlying limitations of their 2024 challenger.
Regardless, Christian Horner’s personnel will surely welcome the latest regulatory amendment.
After all, their suspicion in Bahrain testing was that Ferrari and McLaren were beneficiaries of flexible rear wings.
Of course, both teams passed the FIA’s tests in Australia – rendering their wings legal.
However, it must be noted that what constitutes a legal rear wing has now changed. Not only will there be more thorough static tests, but the permitted slot gap (between the rear wing mainplane and flap) has been reduced.
In Melbourne the regulations stated the maximum distance was 2mm. This has been reduced drastically to 0.5mm, effective immediately for the Chinese GP.
This means some teams whose wings were technically legal will have to be adjusted this weekend.
A significant performance impact?
Like any technical change in F1, assessing the impact of these new regulations is tricky.
Until now, outside of team personnel, only estimates have been made to determine the lap-time advantage from using flexi-wings.
The performance gain is certainly not insignificant – otherwise teams would not have complained and the FIA would not have responded so decisively after Australia.
As it stands, most estimates suggest that teams forced to give up their ‘Mini-DRS’ advantage could lose a few tenths per lap.
This obviously won’t send a front-runner to the back of the grid, but this delta is still noteworthy.
With such fine margins separating the field, especially in qualifying, a few tenths can be game-changing.
Because the Chinese GP is a Sprint weekend, teams will have very limited time to optimise their set-up.
This could complicate efforts to draw conclusions about the impact of the FIA’s new technical directive.
Still, with further restrictions due for the Japanese GP, the next few weeks should create a clearer picture on the winners and losers.
