McLaren's 'clever' new wing design could be something the FIA aren't able to control
But according to F1 aero expert Peter Wright, teams may still be taking advantage of a front wing design area that the FIA isn’t able to monitor effectively. He made the comments during a recent Peter Windsor YouTube livestream.
Wright, who had a significant role in developing aerodynamics while at Lotus in the 1970s, believes the FIA’s new tests — which limit front wing flex to 15mm under load — won’t address where teams are making gains.
“I think they [McLaren] have achieved, very cleverly, a front wing where you can put on however much you want at speed to get rid of low-speed understeer, and that doesn’t give you a lot of high-speed oversteer. Because it washes out the front wing with [aero] load,” said Wright.
“It’s exactly what you want. But unfortunately, under the FIA regulations, no one has control of incidents with the wing or the flap, only the bending. I think that is why nothing changed in the Spanish Grand Prix.”
Guenther Steiner thinks the clampdown in Spain made McLaren faster, as they comfortably won the race by 10 seconds from Charles Leclerc.
McLaren, along with Mercedes, kept the same front wing design while Red Bull and Ferrari both introduced updated specifications in response to the revised force tests.
According to Wright, McLaren have used a design approach more common in the aircraft industry — shaping the way composite materials are layered to fine-tune how a structure bends under air pressure.
“It’s known in the aircraft industry that as primary structures go more towards composites, the layout of the plies are used to tune the structural deformation of wings. I’m quite sure they are well into that.
“As you sweep the wing [upwards], the centre of downforce is behind the mounting point. Therefore, it must twist the mounting point. It twists nose up on a racing car, and it reduces downforce. So there are some very clever things going on in that wing structure.”
