Lando Norris says the FIA’s change to its rear wing regulations is not targeted at McLaren and will not affect their car’s performance in this weekend’s round.
The sport’s governing body will impose a tougher rear wing deflection test from the Chinese Grand Prix. It is intended to prevent teams using wings which deform under high loads, and therefore reduce the drag they generate and permit higher top speeds.McLaren was accused of running such a wing at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix last year, as its edges appeared to move on the long straights at Baku. The team changed its wing design following conversations with the FIA.
The area of the rules has remained a focus for the FIA. It originally intended to introduce a tougher rear wing deflection test at the Spanish Grand Prix in June, then announced the latest change to how it measures wings three days ago.
Norris won the season-opening round in Melbourne last weekend, pulling over 18 seconds clear of McLaren’s closest pursuers at one stage. However he is adamant the change is neither targeted at McLaren nor likely to affect them.
“We don’t have to change anything,” he said. “Ours is fine. In fact, ours was probably too good and we probably are not pushing the limits enough, honestly.
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“So no, if this technical directive was applied for last weekend, we’d also be fine.”
He believes McLaren could be more aggressive with its current rear wing design. “It’s not directed at us, it seems it’s directed at other teams, which probably means we need to push it a little bit more.”
Although Norris was pleased with the MCL39’s performance at Melbourne, where it was almost four-tenths of a second faster than any other car in qualifying, he wants McLaren to make it easier to drive.
“From a car point of view, the car’s doing and performing well,” he said. “But it’s still extremely difficult to drive.
“We know in certain conditions, like in the wettest conditions, Max [Verstappen] was just as quick as us. In the drier conditions, we were a bit better. So [we’re] just making the car a little bit more predictable and a little bit more comfortable.
“But it’s at a good point, I can’t complain about the whole thing, it’s at a good level. But between Oscar [Piastri] and myself, there are things that we both comment on which give the guys and the girls back in the factory a clear direction on what we want to improve. Yes, the car’s great, but we always want more.
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Mercedes’ George Russell, who finished third last weekend, suspects the change will only make a small difference to McLaren’s competitiveness at the most.
“I don’t think the small change of the rules will have any impact, to be honest,” he told Sky. “I think it will bring them back slightly, but nothing like we need.”
“They’re doing an amazing job and we need to try and find out why that is, how that is and if we can implement the same as soon as possible.”
This article will be updated
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2025 Chinese Grand Prix
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- FIA’s new rear wing test ‘directed at other teams, not McLaren’ – Norris
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- F1 teams to face tougher new rear wing flexibility test from this weekend
BMW P85 V10
20th March 2025, 7:01
Norris can’t say different, but he should now better.
What disturbs me most is that the FIA can’t get grip on the issue, mainly because they focus on putting pressure on wings to measure how much they will bend. The Mini DRS is not generated by a bending lower plane of the wing but by the lift of the front section of the upper plane of the wing. This should be tested by application of a upward pulling force on the front end of the upper wing plane.
SteveP
20th March 2025, 7:47
I think you’re taking a rather simplistic view of what causes the overall flexure of the wing.
Think of a plank mounted on two rails about 1/4 distance in from the ends, press in the middle, and the ends lift. No upward pressure required, just simple lever action.
Now complicate that with stiffer or more flexible regions and multiple pressure points. Add in the normal “negative” pressures on portions of the upper surface – because it’s a curved profile wing
Flexure overall is due to combined downward pressure in some places, upward in others, and probably horizontal in others.
I don’t think you could properly test that anywhere other than a wind-tunnel
BasCB (@bascb)
20th March 2025, 8:29
Yeah, the issue for the FIA is that they have to come up with a test in a static environment that is able to uncover how the wing behaves dynamically at higher speeds.
I do think that there is really no reason for Norris to say this is not pointed at McLaren when that is not true. There really is no need to lie, they could just as well come with saying something like “we were going to bring a different rear wing to China anyway” – many teams have done that before in such situations.
S Arkazam
20th March 2025, 8:52
There are ways (e.g. laser sensor) to measure this during the race as well.
Riccard
20th March 2025, 8:19
It is plausible that other teams are also doing this.
The FIA announcing that the benefit was large enough to matter, but that they would not test for it for nine races, may have caused some of the smaller teams to spend their limited development resources in this direction.
So it doesn’t have to be just McLaren… the FIA might have made the problem bigger than that.
Riccard
20th March 2025, 8:22
On McLaren’s part, it’s perfectly plausible that their wing might be bending under full race downforce, but undisturbed by this proposed new test (which is much less forceful).
HW Small
20th March 2025, 9:23
So that is a few disappointed teams then who were hoping mcLaren would be impacted by this.