Flexiwings 2025

[f1isgood]

Mclaren say (autosport) that the stiffer wing had negligible impact, in line with simulations.

So it could be a case that the non-Mclaren teams suffer more…(they are the only ones who believe that the wing matters, therefore it is projection of its impact on their own cars)

It will be hard to get a read of the impact since McLaren will also bring upgrades soon enough (they are due for one).

I don't think it'll matter that much in the end (I expect worst case a tenth a lap lost for any team, including McLaren) primarily because teams would have spent the last few months working on precisely figuring out how to mitigate any non-negligible losses. They aren't stupid to wait to get hit by a TD.

[f1isgood]

Also, from here:


Hamilton on DT: "We are going in the wrong direction because the flexible wings have made these cars pleasant to drive. However this weekend will be interesting because the front wing will flex less, so we will have more front end at high speeds and less at low speeds."

[AR3-GP]

Hamilton on DT: "We are going in the wrong direction because the flexible wings have made these cars pleasant to drive. However this weekend will be interesting because the front wing will flex less, so we will have more front end at high speeds and less at low speeds."

Mercedes also said the same thing:

In addition to confirming updates on the aerodynamic front for the W16, the representative of the Brackley team commented on the aspect that will be under the magnifying glass of protagonists and insiders, namely the introduction of Technical Directive 18 on the flexibility of the front wings. "To be honest I think it will definitely have an impact, it will make the car more delicate to balance between having good mileage in slow corners and not making it too nervous in high speed corners. However, to find out what the actual impact will be, only the weekend will tell us...".

https://autoracer.it/it/mercedes-la-td1 ... -del-setup

Max also said the same

Max Verstappen from the leader in the drivers' world championship. "It will change the balance of the car a bit but not so much for us, although

I don't understand how 3 relatively professional and knowledgeable teams can say one thing, and Mclaren says completely different.(negligible, no impact).


It's not that I think the TD will massively change the pecking order, but to claim the new wings are "negligible"? It goes against logic.

Stella: We also see the introduction of a new front wing TD this weekend, which is an entirely separate conversation. It may appear that this TD has created this tightening of the field, but this would be an incorrect assumption. In fact, we previously ran this new front wing as a test item in Imola with Lando and saw a negligible performance impact, in line with our simulations.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/mcla ... /10727778/

It doesn't reconcile with everyone else.

[organic]

Max on the TD

max on whether the new TD will have an effect on the balance of their car and others’: “not for us. i can say that with a fair amount of confidence.”

“but i’m sure that even for other teams it's all manageable.

[f1isgood]

I personally think if there's any team where we can see "tangible" impact, it probably has to be Mercedes and there's potential evidence for that, although I will wait and watch since they changed way too many things since Imola to draw conclusions only the front wing.

Cars becoming hard to drive regardless of any lap time losses will be something that will have to be seen. Maybe the loss in any potential lap-time could also be because drivers cannot extract the full potential of the cars.

[FNTC]

It's all politics, noone will admit they will get hit ahead of time, so lets see

[LetHimTrough]

One thing they are saying is it makes the car harder to drive, Norris has been saying since the beginning of the year that the car is hard to drive in a fast lap on qualy, probably Mclaren will be affected in that way and not in the race pace per se.

[AR3-GP]

Red Bull new wing shape, with TD compliance:

[Farnborough]

I personally think if there's any team where we can see "tangible" impact, it probably has to be Mercedes and there's potential evidence for that, although I will wait and watch since they changed way too many things since Imola to draw conclusions only the front wing.

Cars becoming hard to drive regardless of any lap time losses will be something that will have to be seen. Maybe the loss in any potential lap-time could also be because drivers cannot extract the full potential of the cars.

I'd add the Williams to that shortlist too. Did anyone see the slow-mo of it bouncing over the Variate Alta ? chicane at Imola?
Looked like hot wet spaghetti

[Seanspeed]

Mclaren say (autosport) that the stiffer wing had negligible impact, in line with simulations.

So it could be a case that the non-Mclaren teams suffer more…(they are the only ones who believe that the wing matters, therefore it is projection of its impact on their own cars)

It will be hard to get a read of the impact since McLaren will also bring upgrades soon enough (they are due for one).

I don't think it'll matter that much in the end (I expect worst case a tenth a lap lost for any team, including McLaren) primarily because teams would have spent the last few months working on precisely figuring out how to mitigate any non-negligible losses. They aren't stupid to wait to get hit by a TD.

More than that, I think people have the wrong logic in thinking that: "If a team's front wing is more flexible than others, they will be hit harder".

Because really, what does that say if a team was competently taking advantage of the existing load tests to their advantage better than others? I would surmise that this team better knows how to create flex within a given load test limitation.

So if you simply increase the load tests a bit more, wouldn't it still make sense that the teams who know how best to create flex under a given load would still be able to find advantage relative to others? It's not like they're creating some entirely new test that will throw off everybody, they're only increasing the existing loads on the current testing design.

[SB15]

One thing they are saying is it makes the car harder to drive, Norris has been saying since the beginning of the year that the car is hard to drive in a fast lap on qualy, probably Mclaren will be affected in that way and not in the race pace per se.

Norris definitely will not like the balance shift neither will Lewis and Kimi. Max, George, Charles and Yuki might like the more on the nose nervousness since their driving style is more suited for that.

[AR3-GP]

One thing they are saying is it makes the car harder to drive, Norris has been saying since the beginning of the year that the car is hard to drive in a fast lap on qualy, probably Mclaren will be affected in that way and not in the race pace per se.

Norris definitely will not like the balance shift neither will Lewis and Kimi. Max, George, Charles and Yuki might like the more on the nose nervousness since their driving style is more suited for that.

Norris tested it in Imola and Stella said the impact was negligible. If its true, then Mclaren's car works in a different way to everyone else. Considering that Mclaren has been the only consistently strong car all season, then that latter statement is probably true.

[Vettel165]

“From f1-data analysis page”

The 'flexy-wing' clampdown is here: it will hurt several teams, and some more than others.

Making the front wing flex provides two benefits:

-Less drag on straights
-Aero balance (lower front downforce coefficient at high speed balance shifts towards understeer more stable at high speed)

-Several teams (McL, Mercedes, Ferrari, etc) stiffened their front wing to comply (notice McLaren's additional bracket)

-To my understanding, Mercedes' wing flexed the most, then McL, then Ferrari/RBR. @dr_obbs came to similar conclusions. This could make Mercedes slide further back, and allow Ferrari and RBR to catch up with McLaren.

[dialtone]

Said it before, but back in 2011-2013 the FIA was frequently chasing down Red Bull's flexi wings with harsher load tests and they never made any difference at all. Red Bull found a way to keep passing the tests with their wings still noticeably flexing on-track beyond what was intended, and the competitive picture never changed. Heck, Red Bull ended that set of regulations more dominant than ever.

So I'm still quite dubious this will have any notable effect on the competition when it's only being regulated by static load testing.

They are applying 60N and looking for 3mm flex, that's roughly 6kg mass. Any car is fine at that weight to flex, lmao.

[SB15]

One thing they are saying is it makes the car harder to drive, Norris has been saying since the beginning of the year that the car is hard to drive in a fast lap on qualy, probably Mclaren will be affected in that way and not in the race pace per se.

Norris definitely will not like the balance shift neither will Lewis and Kimi. Max, George, Charles and Yuki might like the more on the nose nervousness since their driving style is more suited for that.

Norris tested it in Imola and Stella said the impact was negligible. If its true, then Mclaren's car works in a different way to everyone else. Considering that Mclaren has been the only consistently strong car all season, then that latter statement is probably true.

There's a rumor that Norris didn't like the balance.