Is Mercedes copying Red Bull? 'Their rear wing deflects just as much'

In Baku, the battle for the championship will not be the only topic of conversation. The race in Azerbaijan will also be about Red Bull Racing's flexible rear wing. In Spain, it was clearly visible how Red Bull uses the flexible rear wing and Mercedes feared that this would give them a big advantage in Baku.

According to Anthony Davidson, however, it's a different story in Baku. "It's incredibly hard to spot. What the FIA are doing now is looking back from the rear-view camera. They've introduced some markers, some chequered flag spots on the wings," Davidson explained to Sky Sports. Looking at footage of Red Bull's rear wing, Davidson continues.

Mercedes with a flexible rear wing too?

"As the [Red Bull] car builds up speed, the wing will gradually deflect and move away from the static line as we saw to a greater extent in Barcelona. In the braking zone, it comes back to the yellow static line". Davidson, however, sees that Mercedes have adopted the trick. "The interesting thing is at Mercedes it's a similar story with this wing configuration they are running," he said.

"When [the Mercedes car] comes to the braking zone at the first corner, the wing meets up with the static line. It's a similar kind of thing. We've seen a similar kind of thing on the Ferrari front-wing. It's hard to stop these wings flexing but how much is too much?", Davidson concludes.

Footage from Sky F1 shows Mercedes rear wing also flexing slightly on straights and returning to normal height under braking. Here's a comparison pic.twitter.com/RTQlrDoUgI

— Junaid #JB17 (@JunaidSamodien_) June 4, 2021