Mini-Drs McLaren at the end of the line
Could the Federation’s intervention on the eve of the Singapore GP be the final nail in the coffin on the McLaren “mini-Drs” issue? A few hours before the start of the Marina Bay weekend, the FIA has in fact issued a press release to inform of the possibility of intervening even during the championship against flexible wingers and not, as established in an initial phase, as soon as possible with a view to 2025. A crackdown that was not only verbal, but followed on Friday by a first real intervention by the stewards, who allegedly forced McLaren to intervene to modify the functioning of the rear wing shown by Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris in Baku. Will this be the final word on the controversy of the week? This is at least what the Red Bull team principal expects, Christian Hornerwhich is playing against McLaren to confirm its position at the top of both F1 world championship standings.
Christian Horner rejoices
“The intervention of the FIA? Well – the boss of the Milton Keynes team told the microphones Sky – Let’s say it sets a precedent. We don’t want to rush into designing wings that deform in that way, but if it’s considered legal then everyone will do the same thing.”. “The mini-Drs? I’d be surprised if it came back”, Horner then concluded, answering the question about the possibility of McLaren using the controversial rear wing later in the championship. The controversial specification was in fact used at Monza before Baku but, being a very low-load wing for high-top-speed circuits, in fact it should not be used anymore before Las Vegas (which has characteristics in some ways similar to the Azerbaijan GP track).
Red Bull Hopes in Singapore
Horner then returned to talk about the Singapore weekend, which starts with a few more small smiles compared to the total black hole that Red Bull had stumbled into in the 2023 edition (the only GP in which neither Verstappen nor Perez had managed to win): “The ambition this year is very different, this time we started off in a decent way. Checo didn’t have the chance to do a clean lap with the soft tyres, but the track is cleaning up very quickly. Then there are always Ferrari and McLaren who are also very fast here. I imagine it will be like this for the rest of the weekend. The mistakes in Baku? Obviously we looked at a lot of things, but I think in the end we made Verstappen’s car too stiff.. It’s been frustrating, but hopefully things will get better here.”.
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