{"id":31686,"date":"2025-03-20T04:30:20","date_gmt":"2025-03-20T08:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=31686"},"modified":"2025-03-20T04:30:20","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T08:30:20","slug":"red-bull-unfazed-ahead-of-new-flexi-wing-restrictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/03\/20\/red-bull-unfazed-ahead-of-new-flexi-wing-restrictions\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Bull unfazed ahead of new flexi-wing restrictions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/03\/14\/max-verstappen-does-not-expect-red-bull-to-fight-for-wins\/\" target=\"_self\">Max Verstappen<\/a>, in traditional fashion, maximised the machinery at his disposal at the Australian GP. The Dutchman was McLaren&#8217;s closest challenger in Australia, though <strong>Red Bull are clearly a few steps behind<\/strong> their Woking-based rivals.<\/p>\n<p>This weekend in China, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/03\/19\/f1-news-teams-brace-for-impact-ahead-of-new-fia-regulations\/\" target=\"_self\">a new FIA directive<\/a> will address the growing prevalence of flexible rear wings.<\/p>\n<p>Whilst the impact of this rule change is difficult to pinpoint, there are no doubts that Red Bull will be unaffected.<\/p>\n<h4>Red Bull unconcerned by new flexi-wing measures<\/h4>\n<p>Over the winter break, the topic of flexi front-wings came to the forefront &#8211; following an FIA announcement that stricter tests would be implemented at the Spanish GP.<\/p>\n<p>However, the latest developments regarding wing aeroplasticity have <strong>added another dimension to this issue<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>In Australia, the FIA used cameras to observe the rear wings of every team across the weekend. This step was taken in order to assess whether further regulations were necessary.<\/p>\n<p>The implementation of <strong>harsher tests and a reduction to the amount of flexing permitted<\/strong> sends a resounding message.<\/p>\n<p>Several teams were benefiting from this grey area &#8211; at least enough to warrant an <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/03\/17\/fia-announce-new-technical-directive-which-teams-will-benefit\/\" target=\"_self\">FIA clampdown<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Red Bull were not among them, with the Milton Keynes outfit first raising suspicions about rivals using &#8216;Mini-DRS&#8217; in pre-season testing.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike other front-runners, <strong>Red Bull were late to begin pushing the limits of flexi-wings last season<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"5bORjSAvQb9OpZmMEc569A\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2205980313\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'5bORjSAvQb9OpZmMEc569A',sig:'Rst4yi_sYY9Fyhn9GFfCa0xn-WiKnWW4VRDTWnCN-lA=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2205980313',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The Austrian team were instead focused on resolving the more underlying limitations of their 2024 challenger.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/10\/12\/christian-horner-red-bull-wind-tunnel-has-its-limitations\/\" target=\"_self\">Christian Horner&#8217;s personnel<\/a> will surely welcome the latest regulatory amendment.<\/p>\n<p>After all, their suspicion in Bahrain testing was that Ferrari and McLaren were beneficiaries of flexible rear wings.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, <strong>both teams passed the FIA&#8217;s tests in Australia &#8211; rendering their wings legal<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>However,<strong> it must be noted that what constitutes a legal rear wing has now changed<\/strong>. Not only will there be more thorough static tests, but the permitted slot gap (between the rear wing mainplane and flap) has been reduced.<\/p>\n<p>In Melbourne the regulations stated the maximum distance was 2mm. This has been reduced drastically to 0.5mm, effective immediately for the Chinese GP.<\/p>\n<p>This means some teams whose wings were technically legal will have to be adjusted this weekend.<\/p>\n<h4>A significant performance impact?<\/h4>\n<p>Like any technical change in F1, assessing the impact of these new regulations is tricky.<\/p>\n<p>Until now, outside of team personnel, <strong>only estimates have been made to determine the lap-time advantage<\/strong> from using flexi-wings.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"2ulbhd2XSaxtKKQj0uE2JQ\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2204849450\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'2ulbhd2XSaxtKKQj0uE2JQ',sig:'y5wcRjPXtxYZKOPmHctzrMieRhp98wKmhcwfMa-FxGI=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2204849450',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The performance gain is certainly not insignificant &#8211; <strong>otherwise teams would not have complained and the FIA would not have responded so decisively<\/strong> after Australia.<\/p>\n<p>As it stands, most estimates suggest that teams forced to give up their &#8216;Mini-DRS&#8217; advantage could lose a few tenths per lap.<\/p>\n<p>This obviously won&#8217;t send a front-runner to the back of the grid, but this delta is still noteworthy.<\/p>\n<p>With such <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/03\/19\/aston-martin-have-upgrades-in-the-pipeline-see-potential-in-amr25\/\" target=\"_self\">fine margins separating the field<\/a>, especially in qualifying, <strong>a few tenths can be game-changing<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Because the Chinese GP is a Sprint weekend, teams will have very limited time to optimise their set-up.<\/p>\n<p>This could complicate efforts to draw conclusions about the impact of the FIA&#8217;s new technical directive.<\/p>\n<p>Still, <strong>with further restrictions due for the Japanese GP<\/strong>, the next few weeks should create a clearer picture on the winners and losers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Max Verstappen, in traditional fashion, maximised the machinery at his disposal at the Australian GP. The Dutchman was McLaren&#8217;s closest challenger in Australia, though Red Bull are clearly a few steps behind their Woking-based rivals. This weekend in China, a new FIA directive will address the growing prevalence of flexible rear wings. Whilst the impact [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":31687,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2452,2455,78],"class_list":["post-31686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-f1-2025-season","tag-rb21","tag-red-bull-racing"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31686"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31688,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31686\/revisions\/31688"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}