McLaren confirm they will change controversial rear wing design · RaceFans

McLaren have confirmed they will change the design of their rear wing after rivals raised questions over its legality.

The MCL38’s rear wing became a focus of attention after footage emerged during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend of the edges of its DRS flap deforming at speed. Rivals claimed this ‘Mini DRS’ could infringe the regulations.

In a statement yesterday, the FIA noted no teams had made an official complaint about any of their rivals’ designs. It pointed out any wing was considered to comply with the rules if it satisfied the allowed dimensions and flexibility tests.

However amid rising speculation the FIA was preparing to revise the regulations, McLaren has confirmed it will not run the wing in the same form again.

“Whilst our Baku rear wing complies with the regulations and passes all FIA deflection tests, McLaren have proactively offered to make some minor adjustments to the wing following our conversations with the FIA,” it said.

McLaren also indicated the rear wings on other cars may behave in the same way. “We would also expect the FIA to have similar conversations with other teams in relation to the compliance of their rear wings, they said.

Speaking before McLaren’s announcement, Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur said he trusts the FIA to take the right action over the design.

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“I’m not complaining about this. I think it’s more than borderline. We all saw the video and the pictures of this.

“It’s a bit frustrating when, if you remember perfectly the situation in Monza, we had five cars in two hundredths of a second and you move from P1 and P2 to P5 and P6 for two hundredths of a second. In Baku we arrive 10 laps in a row side-by-side turn one, you can imagine that we have a bit of frustration.”

He added McLaren was unlikely to run the wing at the high-downforce Singapore track where F1 is racing this weekend anyway.

“We had a look at the previous events and it was only on the low-downforce tracks,” he said. “I’m not sure that they could or they want to use the same trick in Singapore or in Zandvoort for example.”