Horner expects FIA will ban McLaren’s controversial ‘Mini DRS’ rear wing · RaceFans

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner expects McLaren will be forbidden from continuing to run the rear wing design they used at last week’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Oscar Piastri won last weekend’s race in Baku for McLaren. However footage of the MCL38’s rear wing during the race revealed it was deforming under peak loadings. The wing appeared to move in such a way that the slot gap opened slightly even when DRS was not activated, leading many to dub it a ‘mini DRS’ wing.

The FIA confirmed yesterday it is scrutinising the behaviour of all team’s wing designs following last weekend’s race and considering whether any changes to the rules are needed. It points out all teams’ wing designs passed the applicable load tests.

However Horner expects the rules will be changed to discourage teams from creating similar designs.

“I’d be surprised if we saw it again,” he told Sky. “It sets a precedent now for, we don’t want to rush to design wings that deform like that. If it’s deemed okay, then everybody will do the same.”

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown said Horner was “spot on, it’s been passed by the FIA.”

“These Formula 1 engineers are very clever,” he continued. “They’ve certainly had some pretty awesome race cars the last decade. It’s passed the test, so good on our team for coming up with something that is high performance.”

| Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

McLaren took the lead of the constructors’ championship off Red Bull at the last round. Brown believes the team is under greater scrutiny now because it has become more competitive.

“No, they’re fully aware of everything that’s on our race car and they’re comfortable. So I think it’s inevitable now that we’re leading the championship that everyone will be looking at our car and going ‘not sure I like that and like that’ and that’s the nature of the game.”

“It’s passed every single test,” he emphasised. “So I think this is Formula 1 and it’s clever engineering and FIA is fine with it. So it’s business as usual.”