Front wing flexibility is a major topic of conversation in the paddock at the Spanish Grand Prix, as Formula 1 teams face more stringent tests starting this weekend.
The FIA announced it would introduce the new tests back in January, but gave teams until the ninth round of the season to comply due to the necessity for new wings to be developed and manufactured. The main change sees the maximum deflection under a static load of 100kg reduced from 15mm to 10mm, while front wing flaps are also now only allowed to defect by 3mm under 6kg of load.
While recent changes to similar tests on the rear wings have targeted top speed gains in a straight line, the front wing could have a different impact due to the way it influences the overall balance of the car and rest of the aerodynamics downstream.
In the past, Red Bull and Ferrari have both suggested it is an area that they feel could be contributing to McLaren’s performance advantage, but Oscar Piastri believes the situation has been blown out of proportion.
“I think the biggest problem is going to be how overhyped it is, probably!” Piastri said. “We know what’s different. I think everyone will have to change, at least to an extent. I’ve not run the front wing, but Lando’s [Norris] already run the front wing before this year, so we’re confident.
“That’s not our magic bullet. We don’t have a magic bullet, but that’s not our main strength.”
Charles Leclerc similarly took a more cautious approach than Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur, who said the change could be a game changer ahead of the current run of races.
“I think he said ‘could be’ but yeah, could also not change at all,” Leclerc said. “I don’t think anybody knows. I mean, we know how much it’s going to affect us and it’s not a lot. We don’t know how much it’s going to affect the others – at least we have no idea. So we’ll have to wait and see, but I really don’t know how much it’s going to change the pecking order.”
A flexible front wing can help a car’s balance by improving low-speed understeer and also limiting high-speed oversteer, but Leclerc says there are ways to address that mechanically as well.
“You’ve got different ways of trying to improve that and reproduce the same, at least feeling-wise for the driver, but then you end up compromising other things, which is never what you want to do,” he said. “So let’s say that there are going to be compromises to be found and maybe some drivers can drive with a bit more of a difficult balance and by that you’ll be able to gain something as a team.
“But I think we are all in the same situation. I don’t think it’s going to change as much as we think in terms of feeling a little bit – it’s not going to be a big, big change.”
Leclerc’s Ferrari teammate Lewis Hamilton described the change as a step backwards as flexible front wings had helped improve car handling in the ground effect era, while Max Verstappen is also not expecting any car to be overly hampered by the change.
“Will everything be different? Not so much, no,” Verstappen said. “It will change the balance of the car probably a little bit. For us, not too much, but I don’t expect massive time gains or losses between the teams.”
Where the change might have more of an impact is in the midfield due to how close the different teams are, with small fluctuations potentially having bigger ramifications.
“Barcelona has never been a strong track for us,” Said Williams’ Alex Albon. “I think the last two years I have qualified around 19th position. So it’s not been that great. That being said, Imola was not a good track for us last year and we clearly had a quick car there.
“I don’t think we’re going to be that competitive. It will be more around this new update – the FIA regulation updates and seeing where we fall out with the flexi wings. I think there’s most probably other teams before us that exploited it more. Will that help us this weekend? Let’s see.
“It’s a good track for [flexi wings] to work on, yes. So I think it’s a sensitive track to that feeling. I don’t know for other teams. I’m sure other teams have been on their simulator and done a before-and-after of the effects and seen the different balances that they’ve got from the car. I don’t think you’re going to see huge differences in terms of swings of performance, but for us it wasn’t that big.”
