‘Significant’ F1 rule change could hurt McLaren at Spanish Grand Prix | F1 | Sport
Max Verstappen will hope that a ‘significant’ rule change will slow McLaren’s rapid progress and hand him a glimmer of hope of catching Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris. If returning to the scene of his maiden Formula One victory and a track on which he has triumphed on the last three occasions does not provide enough inspiration, this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix also sees the introduction of stiffer front wings.
Strict front wing flexibility tests are being rolled out this weekend. Flexi front wings have caused controversy over the last year, with McLaren’s rivals claiming that Piastri and Norris have been particular beneficiaries. McLaren deny that to be the case, but ahead of the start of the season, the FIA U-turned on their decision not to introduce new rules this season. Stricter tests – which some insiders claim will even the playing field – are set to start from this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona.
Verstappen will be keen to see whether McLaren suffer a dip in performance as a result. However, he is sceptical about the benefits. The Dutchman said: “Not for us. I can say that with quite a lot of confidence. I think those wings never really gave us a massive performance gain. I don’t know if we got it wrong or didn’t extract the most out of it.
“But even for the other teams, I’m sure it’s all manageable. If you have a good car, you have a good car. The front wing bends a bit less.”
Christian Horner is more hopeful than his star driver, labelling the rule change ‘significant’.
The Red Bull team principal insisted: “It’s a significant change. There will be some effect and, of course, the teams have anticipated this so it may well be neutral. Or it may affect tire degradation. It doesn’t make life easier. But we don’t know how it will affect them.”
Ferrari chief Fred Vasseur, whose team have suffered an underwhelming start to the season, concluded: “This can be a game-changer for everybody because we don’t know the impact on every single team of the new regulation. We will be focused on this to have better exploitation of the front wing.”
Verstappen is hoping to record a fourth consecutive win in Barcelona. Having finished fourth on the tight and narrow street circuit in Monaco last weekend, the 27-year-old is looking forward to the few faster corners in Catalonia.
“All the street circuits [will be difficult] car-wise,” Verstappen said. “And I hate street circuits. I think the more high-speed corners, that will be more competitive for us, actually, because I think that’s where you don’t really need to hit any kerbs.
“Our car is quite good in the high-speed. We just need to try and bring that a bit more down to the medium-speed and especially the low-speed. We’ve won two races that have been at quite high-speed tracks, so I think it shows that that’s where we are strong. All the other tracks where we’ve been lacking a bit, it’s all been a little bit more low to medium-speed.”
