Ex-F1 driver criticises Red Bull over flex 'whining'

Mar.5 (GMM) The FIA will reportedly monitor compliance with new rear wing flexibility limits by installing sensors on the Formula 1 cars.

Last year, both front and rear wings on multiple cars may have been passing the governing body’s checks, but on-track the visual flexing was at times extreme.

Some even called the gaps that opened up on the McLaren rear wing at speed as akin to a ‘mini-DRS’. So from the season opener in Australia, much stricter static load tests will apply.

The stricter tests for front wings, however, will not apply until the Spanish GP in early June. In the pre-season test in Bahrain, front wing flexibility remained visibly quite extreme on many cars, including the McLaren but also the Aston Martin.

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner thinks the new harsher tests should have both applied immediately in 2025, rather than turning the season into an expensive two-part championship.

Former F1 driver Christijan Albers is a critic of Red Bull’s complaining.

“At the moment, it’s allowed,” he told De Telegraaf. “So if the wing can pass the test, it complies with the regulations.

“Red Bull started the story, with a small number of teams, and now they’ve kind of gotten rid of the wings and they’re whining. What’s that about?

“Red Bull must go in this direction as well – it’s quite simple. They need to do what their rivals are doing, otherwise you’re just shooting yourself in the foot.

“In Formula 1, everyone works at the very edge of what is acceptable.”