Flexiwings 2025

[AR3-GP]

Mercedes:

[chrisc90]

I still think there will be a few teams that get a bit of a nerf. Merc brought their wing in Monaco and made a bit of a leap forwards.

Let’s face it, more than just a bit of flex it helps with. Most likely helps with the floor at the front and how it interacts with the front to provide grip, and importantly the balance of the car.

If these tweaks change how the balance is set, you can go from hero to zero

[the EDGE]

Just remember… Teams are still allowed flexi wings, so in that respect there is no change to the rules

Sure, under test conditions, they have to perform correctly, but that is what aero elasticity is all about

Whoever can flex the most whilst passing the test will loose the least

[organic]

Just remember… Teams are still allowed flexi wings, so in that respect there is no change to the rules

Sure, under test conditions, they have to perform correctly, but that is what aero elasticity is all about

Whoever can flex the most whilst passing the test will loose the least

Merc were previously the kings of wing flexing at front and rear. Now look at their post-imola wings - it's almost completely gone. The new tests are strict

[the EDGE]

Just remember… Teams are still allowed flexi wings, so in that respect there is no change to the rules

Sure, under test conditions, they have to perform correctly, but that is what aero elasticity is all about

Whoever can flex the most whilst passing the test will loose the least

Merc were previously the kings of wing flexing at front and rear. Now look at their post-imola wings - it's almost completely gone. The new tests are strict

Well it certainly adds another level of intrigue to this weekend… kinda makes up for last weeks snooze fest

[FNTC]

40% reduction in how much the front wing flap can flex with around 6kg load, is a lot (from 5 to 3 mm). It will make the wings way more rigid. The question is who has been pushing this the most and therefore have to change their wings the most, and we will see this weekend. Most of the teams will downplay this ahead of the change, naturally.

[AR3-GP]

Drawing from Piola of fw load testing setup.

[AR3-GP]

And we all saw how good they were in Monaco.
Some how people believe that suddenly McLaren after so many years with nothing, they became magicians and aero Guru's.

We have to be reasonable. There are also logical explanations for why Mclaren may not be affected at all (small drag benefit but no other consequence). There's no reason, for now, to doubt the words of Andrea Stella. He said it will change nothing for them. It could be that Ferrari, Red Bull, and Mercedes are the ones hurt the most. They are the ones who made the most noise about the wings so perhaps that is a clue that it affects their cars more. Mclaren show little interest in the subject. The others should think about how to beat Mclaren regardless of a TD.

[bluechris]

And we all saw how good they were in Monaco.
Some how people believe that suddenly McLaren after so many years with nothing, they became magicians and aero Guru's.

We have to be reasonable. There are also logical explanations for why Mclaren may not be affected at all (small drag benefit but no other consequence). There's no reason, for now, to doubt the words of Andrea Stella. He said it will change nothing for them. It could be that Ferrari, Red Bull, and Mercedes are the ones hurt the most. They are the ones who made the most noise about the wings so perhaps that is a clue that it affects their cars more. Mclaren show little interest in the subject. The others should think about how to beat Mclaren regardless of a TD.

The team with the most flexing will not be affected because Stella says it? Anyway we will soon see.

[organic]

And we all saw how good they were in Monaco.
Some how people believe that suddenly McLaren after so many years with nothing, they became magicians and aero Guru's.

We have to be reasonable. There are also logical explanations for why Mclaren may not be affected at all (small drag benefit but no other consequence). There's no reason, for now, to doubt the words of Andrea Stella. He said it will change nothing for them. It could be that Ferrari, Red Bull, and Mercedes are the ones hurt the most. They are the ones who made the most noise about the wings so perhaps that is a clue that it affects their cars more. Mclaren show little interest in the subject. The others should think about how to beat Mclaren regardless of a TD.

The team with the most flexing will not be affected because Stella says it? Anyway we will soon see.

Mercedes had way more flexing than McLaren

[CjC]

Make what you want of Gary’s analysis:

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/gary ... l-ferrari/

We know Merc ran a Spanish compliant wing in Imola.
Gary seems to think most if not all teams will have run a compliant wing at some point recently which might align with the Stella’s comments which have been speculated.

[f1isgood]

On this topic, I was reading Pierre Wache's interview with Mark Hughes (not any opinion piece but a direct one-on-one interview) and he says that the advantage of flexi-wings is that you can run your car stiffer (stiff suspensions) and yet balance the car across different types of corners. My impression was that running it stiffer allows the car to go low in high speed along with balance shift rearwards which is good for the driver confidence (also reduces drag) but also provides solid front-end grip in low speed, allowing cars to attack corners aggressively.

The non-flexiwing compromise for this seems to be to run the car a little softer but this penalizes you with lap time as you can't get the same kind of downforce.

I am curious to see if we will see teams running softer suspensions going forward and if that brings back bouncing. Or maybe I have simply gotten this all wrong.

[Vettel165]

Mercedes, Mclaren wings were flexing the most in this order. Ferrari and Red Bull might gain from that in some ways. In theory it could mean more balance problems with the car for the cars that were more depended on the flexi wings. Red Bull out of all top teams had the worse developed wings in that area. Even if it brings a tenth or two it could mean a difference. I am just thinking out loud. Will see.

[bluechris]

We have to be reasonable. There are also logical explanations for why Mclaren may not be affected at all (small drag benefit but no other consequence). There's no reason, for now, to doubt the words of Andrea Stella. He said it will change nothing for them. It could be that Ferrari, Red Bull, and Mercedes are the ones hurt the most. They are the ones who made the most noise about the wings so perhaps that is a clue that it affects their cars more. Mclaren show little interest in the subject. The others should think about how to beat Mclaren regardless of a TD.

The team with the most flexing will not be affected because Stella says it? Anyway we will soon see.

Mercedes had way more flexing than McLaren

Correct and the 1st results with the new Barcelona spec wing that they produced, we saw it in Monaco, the team was nowhere. Monaco off course is a strange outlier but it shows something for sure.

[pantherxxx]

McLaren first introduced flexi-wings on their car with the 2024 Miami upgrade. Before that, they were nowhere.