The controversy over McLaren’s “mini-Drs” wing
After Frederic Vasseur’s piqued comment and Zak Brown’s intervention that ignited Friday in Singapore, all that was missing was the (final?) response from the Federation on the subject of the “mini-Drs”, now officially banned. The response arrived on Saturday during the Marina Bay qualifying sessions from Nicholas Tombazis, the person in charge of single-seater regulations for FIA competitions. On the microphones Skythe Greek engineer, formerly of Ferrari, has in fact exposed the opinion of the regulatory body on the McLaren rear wing, which has been formally judged regular, but which will have to be modified by the Woking team in view of the next GPs. Apparently a victory for Ferrari and Red Bull, but in reality a decision that strengthens the position of Norris and Piastriwhich however would no longer use the low-downforce wing specification except on the Las Vegas circuit.
The FIA explains the decision
Which inevitably led the teams to complain to the Federation at least about the timing of the intervention, which will not be retroactive and comes at a time that makes it (almost) irrelevant. Tombazis, however, rejected the criticisms to the sender: “We only discussed the McLaren rear wing after the Baku race. Usually the teams that complain come to us on Friday to discuss the aspect they consider controversial.. Then, we must not forget that McLaren passed all the compliance tests anyway. And this is important because the offending rear wing had satisfied all the rules described in the technical directives anyway. Therefore, based on the text of the regulations, it did not seem that it was appropriate to proceed with a retrospective disqualification of McLaren”.
How the Baku sun highlighted the problem
“All teams – added Tombazis – without exception, even those who complain loudest these days, have sometimes benefited from our approach. In our opinion, this is the right thing to do in a sporting way. So the situation did not deserve an exaggeration like the disqualification from the Azerbaijan GP. Then it is natural that there are complaints because the championship is very competitive. I would also add one thing: in Baku there was sun in a certain direction, which highlighted this phenomenon much more. This was perhaps not the case at Monza or Spa, and in fact no one had noticed. If someone had come to us at Monza or Spa perhaps we would have acted a little earlier.”.
#McLaren #Disqualified #FIA #Baku
