Aston Martin controversial wing took ‘several months from FIA contact to approval’
The Aston Martin car with its modified rear wing attached. Budapest, July 2022.
Tom McCullough, Aston Martin’s director of performance, has revealed it took “several months” for their controversial rear wing to move from initial contact with the FIA to approval.
But the FIA, he insists, are “happy” that it meets the letter of the law.
Aston Martin debuted a new rear wing at the high downforce Hungaroring ring, one that Sky Sports’ pundit Ted Kravitz billed as a “game-changer” as, while it was in line with this year’s regulations, it created downforce like last year’s wings.
It did, however, catch the attention of the paddock as there was some debate over its legality as it defied the convention set out in the all-new regulations.
Aston Martin have reiterated that the wing is legal, and the FIA are “happy” with it.
“It took several months from initial contact to full FIA approval,” McCullough told motorsport-total.com. “Once approval is given the designs are made and submitted before the race weekend.
“And again the FIA has to make sure they are still happy with what they were. And then you get it on the car.”
But while the wing has caught the eye don’t expect to see it on the AMR22 too often as it is a high-downforce design.
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McCullough says Aston Martin have already made a few other wings for F1’s different circuits, a different design expected at Spa and Monza.
“We have quite a few wings that we’ve already made,” he said. “We have already used many of them due to the different efficiencies of the circuits. So why should we develop them from scratch? It’s simply a question of cost-benefit ratio.”
Aston Martin team boss Mike Krack reckons there will be more wings on the grid copying the AMR22’s come the Singapore Grand Prix.
“The next high-downforce races are Netherlands and Singapore. I would be surprised if we are the only ones in Singapore racing this idea,” he said.
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner admitted his team would most likely examine the design and see what benefits it could offer.
“I guess if it complies with the regs, that’s the main thing,” Horner said. “It opens up another avenue, which is interesting.
“Maybe for once we will copy something off an Aston Martin rather than the other way around, so you never know.”
