FIA tells McLaren to make major change to their cars after protest from Red Bull (original) (raw)

FIA tells McLaren to change rear wing after Red Bull protests about Lando Norris' car

Protests from Red Bull, among other rival Formula 1 teams, have prompted leaders McLaren to make changes to their rear wing designs 'after conversations with the FIA'

McLaren have been asked by the FIA to change the way their rear wings flex under aerodynamic load

McLaren have been asked by the FIA to change their rear wing designs after protests from rival Formula 1 teams about its legality.

After the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, teams got in contact with the governing body to question the rear wings that were used on the MCL38 cars. One element of the wings appeared to rotate under aerodynamic load, which slightly opened the slot gap.

Dubbed a 'mini-DRS', rivals have complained that the design is not legal. And although the design does comply with the regulations as they are currently written and has passed all FIA tests, the body has still asked the championship leaders to make changes.

And McLaren have confirmed that it will comply with that request - with one condition. A team statement read: "Whilst our Baku rear wing complies with the regulations and pass all FIA deflection tests, McLaren have proactively offered to make some minor adjustments to the wing following our conversations with the FIA.

"We would also expect the FIA to have similar conversations with other teams in relation to the compliance of their rear wings."

McLaren will still be allowed to use the wing design in question, but will have to make tweaks to it to stop it being affected by aerodynamic load in the way it was in Baku. The wing design passes static FIA tests, but a technical directive is relevant in this case.

TD34 states that "designs whose structural characteristics are altered by secondary parameters, so as to produce (whilst running at the track) a different deflection characteristic than when stationary during the FIA checks. Examples of secondary parameters could be temperature, aerodynamic load etc.," are not considered to be legal.

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DRS was introduced in 2011 in a bid to aid overtaking. In certain areas of the track, a mechanical arm allows for the wing to 'open' which reduces drag and therefore increases the top speed of the car, but in a race it can only be used when a car is less than one second behind another when they pass a timing line before each zone.

Red Bull were one of the teams understood to have repeatedly protested to the FIA about the legality of McLaren's cars. And long-serving team adviser Helmut Marko confirmed that as he suggested that there are more parts of the car that they want to have inspected by the governing body.

The Austrian said: "Three times we protested against McLaren's rear wing. Today the FIA made a very correct decision - McLaren's rear wing is not allowed. Now, it's time to look at their front wing."