While attention continues to focus on Red Bull's ride height device, the FIA has revealed that McLaren wasn't the only team to attract attention to its rear wing.

The Woking outfit was forced to make changes to its rear wing after footage during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix revealed that it was rotating at high speed, thereby changing the gap and creating what has been called a 'mini-DRS'.

In conjunction with the FIA, McLaren agreed to modify its rear wing after concerns were raised by rivals.

However, it has now been revealed that the Woking outfit wasn't the only team warned by the FIA during the break between the Singapore event and last weekend's race in the US.

"We issued, after Singapore, some communication about rear wings, saying what we would consider acceptable or not acceptable," FIA Single-Seater Director, Nikolas Tombazis told Motorsport.com.

"Two or three teams had to make some small tweaks to adjust to that," he revealed.

"There's some natural opening, because of the way the wings are mounted and deformed and so on," he continued, referring to the permitted 2mm allowance, "but some teams were deforming more.

"We just want to make sure that there isn't any sort of continuing trend in a certain direction, it's not because we have any immediate plans to introduce a new test or anything."

Despite making adjustments earlier in the season when fears were first raised, following the Azerbaijan race McLaren "proactively" adjusted its rear wings without waiting on a directive from the governing body.

"McLaren proactively offered to make some minor adjustments to our rear wing following the Azerbaijan GP," said a McLaren spokesperson. "We have made minor adjustments to all our rear wings since Baku to varying extents to ensure no further issues in this area."

"We said, 'Look, we consider that as something you need to change,'" said Tombazis. "If they had ignored us, and they generally don't, then we would have reported them."

Speaking at COTA last weekend, Zak Brown confirmed the modifications.

We've made some small modifications, as have some others," he said. "So that's a non-issue."

LATEST NEWS

more news >

LATEST IMAGES

galleries >

Click to go to the main galleries section

READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Ricardo_sanchez, 25/10/2024 14:08

"@kenji - wouldn’t that diminish the sport by taking away options for engineering ingenuity? For me, a big part of the attraction of F1 has always been the way teams take different approaches to maximising performance through chassis design or technical innovation. It’s why we remember those ground-breaking designs from
Chapman, Cooper, Barnard, Murray, Brawn, Byrne, Ducarouge, Postlethwaite, Newey etc.

If anything, I think I’d prefer more scope for engineers to use their ingenuity but with clearer ‘guard rails’ so when someone makes a breakthrough, they get the benefit of it until others catch up. Of course, with the cost cap, catching up might now be more challenging.
"

Rating: Neutral (0) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

2. Posted by kenji, 25/10/2024 1:44

"To prevent any opacity/grey areas when it comes to rules and regs that govern the current race series a major change is required. Move to a total spec series. Unthinkable but an alternative!"

Rating: Positive (1) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

3. Posted by Wokingchap, 24/10/2024 16:09

"@Ricardo_sanchez....very well put.... no hate just fact."

Rating: Positive (2) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

4. Posted by yakker, 24/10/2024 10:53

"We've made some small modifications, as have some others," he said. "So that's a non-issue."
Just like the RedBull saga Zak."

Rating: Positive (1) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

5. Posted by Ricardo_sanchez, 24/10/2024 10:05

"It’d be useful if the FIA could come up with technical regulations that are less…flexible. At least for a season at a time, the teams should be able to build cars that comply with a set of rules that everyone understands. If there’s room for interpretation but the components pass the agreed tests, what’s the issue? This constant tinkering with the rules (mid season) is undermining confidence in the FIA & it opens us up to all kinds of conspiracy theories. Mind you, it keeps Zak & Toto busy, and provides a narrative for the next DTS series. Is F1 just being turned a “scripted reality” TV show? "

Rating: Positive (5) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

"Two or three teams" had to make rear wing tweaks

LATEST NEWS

RELATED ARTICLES

LATEST IMAGES

POST A COMMENT

Post your comment

READERS COMMENTS

Share this page