Red Bull team principal Christian Horner admitted he is puzzled by the FIA’s plan to introduce new stiffness tests on wings this year.
The sport’s governing body has confirmed it will impose tougher new rear wing tests from the first round of the championship next month. However it will wait until round nine, the Spanish Grand Prix at the end of May, to introduce new tests of front wing stiffness.
The rules are being introduced after the FIA studied the behaviour of teams’ wings at high speed last year. The governing body is concerned teams have designed them to deform at peak loads to improve top speeds, before regaining their shape when cars decelerate, to generate maximum downforce when cornering.
Horner said it will “be interesting, the effect that it has” when the new rules are introduced, but queried the decision not to change both tests from the start of the season.
“The slight oddball about it is the timing of it,” he said. “Why race nine?
“It might have been better to have addressed [it] during the off-season because [teams] end up doing two specs of wing [designs].”
However he is unsure how the change might affect the pecking order between the teams. “Who will gain or who will lose from it, I think is impossible to predict,” he said.
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Last year McLaren was one of several teams which changed the design of their rear wing after their rivals raised concerns with the FIA following the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown is unconcerned by the coming change in the rules.
“I don’t think it’s a significant change for us,” he said. “I think it’s too hard to tell who wins or loses over it, because I don’t think it’s going to be a material change for anybody.
“So I’m not expecting there to be a winner and loser or some change in the pecking order at that time because of that.”
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