F1 flexi wings clampdown won’t affect Red Bull, others will adapt

Max Verstappen says the fresh clampdown on front wing flexing will not impact his Red Bull’s performance and is also sceptical about the FIA’s intervention affecting his Formula 1 rivals.

After imposing stricter limits on rear wing flexing in the off-season, and tightening them further in China and Japan, F1’s governing body is also implementing harsher tests from this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona. 

Many teams and observers in the F1 paddock have been eagerly looking forward to this weekend’s race to see how it impacts the pecking order. Some believe frontrunner McLaren has been the most advanced at exploiting aero-elasticity, which is supposed to help with the car’s set-up and the compromise between low- and high-speed corners. 

But Verstappen, McLaren’s main challenger, isn’t so convinced and feels the change won’t have a big impact. 

“Not for us. I can say that with quite a lot of confidence,” the four-time world champion said in Barcelona.

“I think those wings never really gave us a massive performance gain. I don’t know if we got it wrong or didn’t extract the most out of it.

“But even for the other teams, I’m sure it’s all manageable. If you have a good car, you have a good car. The front wing bends a bit less.” 

Red Bull has made progress in recent weeks unlocking performance from its RB21, and in Imola Verstappen was able to defeat McLaren in a clean fight, the first time this year that the team has been undisputedly quicker over a race stint. 

But Verstappen still feels McLaren may have underperformed in Italy, and when quizzed by Autosport, he added that he doesn’t think its relative performance at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix will necessarily carry over to the Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya, which is another high-downforce layout that should suit the Red Bull. 

“Imola was, of course, at the end very positive. But to try and replicate something like that… I don’t know. We’ll try to do our best,” added Verstappen.

“But I also don’t know if Imola was just a very strong showing from us or maybe a weaker showing from McLaren. It’s very hard to tell.” 

Last week’s Monaco Grand Prix did show Red Bull’s long standing weaknesses on a bumpy street circuit is still present, so he has singled out high-downforce tracks with fast corners and less kerb riding as Red Bull’s ideal hunting ground. 

“All the street circuits [will be difficult] car-wise,” he said. “And I hate street circuits. I think the more high-speed corners, that will be more competitive for us, actually, because I think that’s where you don’t really need to hit any kerbs. 

“Our car is quite good in the high-speed. We just need to try and bring that a bit more down to the medium-speed and especially the low-speed. We’ve won two races that have been at quite high-speed tracks, so I think it shows that that’s where we are strong. 

“All the other tracks where we’ve been lacking a bit, it’s all been a little bit more low to medium-speed.”