Ferrari “hasn’t changed anything” amid flexing front wing suggestions

Ferrari’s senior performance engineer Jock Clear says that the team “hasn’t changed anything” despite murmurings over internal changes to its front wing to benefit from greater flexing.

The Italian squad had been one of the teams to lodge a query with the FIA over the front wings of Mercedes and McLaren, under the belief that these were flexing beyond a permissible amount despite passing the governing body’s rigidity tests.

After the FIA offered clarification, it opened the door for other teams to pursue a similar design, with Ferrari understood to have pressed its own version into service. This was considered as a potential contributor to the team’s dominant 1-2 at the United States Grand Prix last weekend.

But Clear stated that it was “questionable” to discuss how the other teams were progressing with their own designs, and that the FIA was happy with Ferrari’s adherence to the regulations.

In response to a question about lead times for flexing front wings following the FIA’s clarification, Clear said: “I think that what you’re talking about there is specifically a fairly questionable discussion.

“We don’t know what other teams are doing. We only know what we’re doing on our car. We interpret the rules in the way that we think is the correct interpretation and the FIA have never questioned any of our interpretation of the rules.

“We continue to develop as much as we can and as fast as we can within the scope of the rules. We haven’t changed anything. 

Jock Clear, Senior Performance Engineer, Scuderia Ferrari

Photo by: Andreas Beil

“If we look at what other people do, we can only guess what actually is going on. We can’t do physical tests on it. We could only work on our own car and we are comfortable with the development, pretty much since Austria.

“And since the summer break, we’ve really got a grip of what direction to go in, both on the development and on the set-up.”

Clear explained that Ferrari’s form at Austin came from its own understanding of how it missed the mark at the Austrian Grand Prix in June, noting the similarity between the two venues.

He added Austin also proved that Ferrari’s upgrades at the end of the European season had worked to alleviate its mid-season slump following a misfiring Barcelona update package.

“There were things we did on the set-up; I think we got it wrong in Austria, which is a very similar circuit to Austin, funnily enough. 

“Not absolutely true, but the aspects of Austin that worked for us were a result of what we didn’t get working in Austria.

“So effectively, the package was very similar. Obviously, we brought upgrades in Singapore, we brought upgrades in Italy that were generic [not track-specific].

“I think Austin was a proof of that package. But more than that, what we did correctly in Austin was correcting the errors we made in Austria in terms of set-up.”