Why McLaren immediately removed its new front wing at F1 Canadian GP?
McLaren opted to remove its brand new front wing for Formula 1 sprint qualifying at the Canadian Grand Prix.
A new front wing design was part of the revised package and was tested by Lando Norris throughout Friday’s sole practice session at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
Team-mate Oscar Piastri initially started FP1 with McLaren’s old-specification wing, before he too trialled the updated version.
But McLaren took it off the car altogether and reverted to the previous spec for sprint qualifying after it failed to produce the performance the team had been expecting.
Norris subsequently qualified third behind the Mercedes duo and directly ahead of Piastri.
“The front wing wasn’t quite delivering what we expected and we ultimately took the call to run the previous specification front wing, which gave the drivers more confidence and allowed them to unlock more performance,” McLaren’s technical director for engineering Neil Houldey said.
Norris felt McLaren’s upgrade was a step forward on the whole, but suggested the new front wing was “a bit more questionable”.
“Some things were maybe a bit more questionable and we probably need just more time to review things and look back,” the reigning world champion said.
“It’s such a weird track, it’s so low grip, you’re kind of bouncing off kerbs and stuff, so you’re not getting a true representation of everything and it’s hard to back it up with what we have in the windtunnel and things like that."
source: http://Crash.net
original photos: @RosarioGiuliana
