McLaren not worried about 'Mini DRS' rule change: 'No impact'
F1 News
Entering the Chinese Grand Prix, the FIA have announced a new technical directive, with stricter rules regarding the rear wings in order to prevent the use of the so-called 'Mini DRS'. McLaren's Technical Director Neil Houldey however explained that his team are not worried about such change.
McLaren are an ever-present team in the 'flexiwings' discussion, and the 'Mini DRS' made headlines after last year's Azerbaijan Grand Prix. While change for the front wings will come into effect ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix, the FIA earlier have introduced changes for Australia, and now, teams have to deal with even stricter regulations in China.
"We were lucky when we were tested in Melbourne and the numbers that the FIA chose to put in the TD are higher than the deflection that we'd seen, so it's had absolutely no impact on us at this event. The performance should be no different for us, so I think we'll be okay with that one," Houldey began to explain to media.
Houldey points to competition: 'No idea how they would solved this'
The Technical Director also underlined that teams that didn't comply with the new rules in Australian would be in a difficult situation. "We would certainly struggle, so it's fortunate that we were in the position that we were and didn't have to make any changes. I don't know how other teams have managed it, but maybe there are setup changes that they've been able to make that don't require new components or maybe they've had to make something incredibly quickly to get it here and become legal."
For McLaren, their low-drag rear wings are yet to be tested, but Houldey is not worried about that spec either. "I don't think [it will be an issue]. I think when you look at some of the footage and some of the images from testing, there were certainly teams that were pushing the boundaries on slot gap opening more than us. So no, I don't think it was that wing that gave them enough interest to do anything," he concluded.
This article was written in collaboration with Mitchel van der Hoef
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