The truth behind Mercedes, McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull wings

The battle to suppress flexible bodywork, and more specifically flexi-wings, is a very hot topic this season as the teams continue to monitor the flexibility of their rivals’ rear wing assemblies.

Footage captured from the rear facing onboard cameras during the first few races has once again raised questions over the overall flexibility of some rear wing assemblies, with a varied approach being taken to improve the car’s performance and reduce drag.

Flexi-wing saga explained: Not everything is created equal

This comes after the FIA were pressed into action with regards to the amount of slot gap manipulation that was being witnessed in the opening two rounds, as the tolerances for the new test reduced further than the initial restrictions that had been imposed for this season.

The footage, which surfaced on social media following the Chinese Grand Prix, has attracted attention for what looks like a ‘living, breathing’ rear wing on the McLaren, as the short video compared the rear wing on the McLaren MCL39 to the Red Bull RB21 to show the difference in flexion between the two assemblies.

Jos Verstappen’s retweet obviously created more attention than the footage might otherwise have received but it’s fairly clear to see how much more visible the flexion is in the rear wing assembly on the McLaren than the Red Bull, at least in this footage.

However, it’s fair to say that this could be caused by a number of factors, including how much the entire wing assembly deforms, with the size and relative position of the slot gap also affected by this.

And, there’s also a disparity between how quickly the wing moves from one state to another, with the overall amount of rear sweeping deflection between the two teams only resulting in a marginal difference when lined up side-by-side, as seen in my illustration.

As we know, even a small difference can have wide-sweeping consequences though, with the whole car and setup balanced in accordance with this, as more often than not, a team can use a wing setup with more downforce than they might ordinarily choose in order to make gains in the corners, without the added drag penalty that might incur.

The illustrations of the McLaren, Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari wings show them in two states, the left-hand side (as we look at them) represents the wing when it is unloaded and the right-hand side shows how the wing assembly has deflected under load. The yellow box is being used to highlight how big that change is between the two states.

The difference in the shape of the rear wing contributes to this too, with the rear wing’s trailing edge on the RB21 much flatter across the span than the McLaren when they rotate, for example.

Interestingly, although the Woking-based outfit might seem like the best team to target here, given their relative pace difference to their rivals, it would appear that Mercedes have a solution that has even more movement when it’s under load.

In their case, there appears to be much more going on though, with some extreme deformation of the rear wing support pillar becoming a contributing factor, which can be seen in how much lower it is at high speed (right-hand side).

Regardless of how each of the designs achieve the flexion that’s being seen, all of them are clearly capable of passing the static load tests that are performed during scrutineering ahead of the race weekend.

And, this is the critical factor here, as these designs are all capable of passing the static load tests, albeit some, sweep rearwards more than others, with the likes of Ferrari and Red Bull also taking advantage of this effect, just not to the same level as some of their rivals.

When pressed on it this weekend, that’s exactly how Max Verstappen saw it too – “I don’t make the rules and I’m also not the one enforcing them. So you know what I see, probably a lot of people see, but that’s it”.

A sentiment that was echoed by Helmut Marko too – “Well, that’s up to the FIA. They deal with it, we are not scrutineers…”

Nonetheless, we can expect this to be an ongoing narrative for 2025, as each of the teams use their political might to persuade the FIA that there’s more going on than they might realise, whilst potentially developing their own, more flexible alternatives…

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