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New rear wing costs Red Bull a lot of money: Coming out of the budget cap

New rear wing costs Red Bull a lot of money: "Coming out of the budget cap"

15-06-2021 08:25
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GPblog.com

During the French Grand Prix the cars of all the Formula 1 teams will have to comply with a new test by the FIA. The rear wing will be tested heavier than before, and that will cost the teams a lot if changes are needed to be made. 

For weeks now, the topic of conversation in Formula 1 has been the 'Flexwings'. Mercedes openly pointed at Red Bull Racing's moving rear wing, but there are more teams whose rear wing visibly moves during a lap. The FIA saw this too and decided to introduce new tests starting from the French GP.

Red Bull has to pay

"It's definitely going to have an impact, and it's not just Red Bull. They are the most high profile because they are doing so well right now, but there are lots of teams. AlphaTauri, another really noticeable one that has a flexi wing. Alfa Romeo as well. Pretty much everyone has been designing to the current tests. If the tests now change, a lot of people will have to redesign those rear wings. Even if they don't think they were doing it to gain an advantage, the test has become stricter and therefore the design parameters have to reflect that. This is going to cost a lot of money," said Marc Priestley in His new video.

Teams don't have to complain about this to the FIA according to the former McLaren mechanic. "It's coming out of the budget cap. The FIA would say, 'look we've always had in the regulations that we are free to change the test at any point'. The regulations aren't really about the tests, the regulations are about banning flexible bodywork. The tests were deemed to be appropriate, but if they are no longer deemed to be appropriate to police the current regulations...the regs haven't changed, the tests are changing and therefore the FIA will say 'nothing has changed in the regulations'," Priestley concluded.