Team principals have welcomed a technical directive from the FIA coming into action for the Singapore Grand Prix clamping down on so-called ‘flexi-wings’.
The governing body issued a technical directive – a form of formal notification – informing teams that they will be placing certain areas of cars under increased scrutiny to see if they flex excessively at high speed.
Article 3.2.2 of the sport’s technical regulations demands that “all aerodynamic components or bodywork influencing the car’s aerodynamic performance must be rigidly secured and immobile” and that parts “must produce a uniform, solid, hard, continuous, impervious surface under all circumstances.”
There are suspicions in the paddock that some teams have been skirting the limits of this regulation, particularly with areas of car wings and the nose. Speaking at Friday’s team principals press conference, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said his team welcomed the technical directive.
“The FIA, they have a lot of information,” Stella said. “They can see things that other teams can’t see in terms of respecting cars. So they are very competent.
“We 100% trust their judgement and their approach and if they thought that it was the time to release a technical directive, then it means that there is a reason for that. We are not very concerned about that, to be honest, so we take the positive that if the FIA felt it was needed, it means that there is something to clamp down and for us I think is good news.”
Frederic Vasseur, the team principal of Ferrari, believes the FIA’s move will help to clarify what it is and is not acceptable in regards to bodywork and wings.
“By definition, a TD is a clarification of the regulation,” he explained. “It means that there was already a regulation in place.
“As Andrea said, we have to trust the FIA that if they consider that they have to do the TD, it’s probably that the regulation was not clear enough and we trust the FIA in this direction to do that.”
Speaking on Thursday, Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack insisted that “for us it will not be a headache.” Red Bull’s Christian Horner also assured that his team – who have won all 13 races so far this season – will be unaffected by the technical directive.
“It’s not something that affects us,” Horner said. “We’ve seen a few rubbery nose boxes, shall we say, so we’ll see those get addressed, I guess, in Singapore.”
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