Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton recently pointed out that Red Bull were using bendy wings that visibly flexed on the straights. Red Bull had responded by saying that their wing had passed all of the scrutineering done by the FIA. The FIA then released a statement that they will be employing new testing methods to decide if all the teams were using legal wings. Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has now responded to these developments while speaking to motorsport-total
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I'm your host Dillon Shelley and first up on Formula World:
Are Red Bull Worried About FIA’s New Tests For Flexible Wings
Marko began by pointing out how they had passed the previous test
“The wing had passed the acceptance test. That is the decisive factor. Now there are new criteria that have different guidelines for strength”
He also explained how F1 is about constantly changing regulations and how these new tests won’t just affect Red Bull
“That is always the development when new regulations come and the teams discover grey areas. But it is not only Red Bull in the sights. It also affects other teams”
He also revealed that they themselves had to make adjustments to the car’s design during their successful title run between 2010 and 2013
“We had to readjust the front wings two or three times a season during our successful world title campaign”
He signed off by looking at the fact that it was Lewis Hamilton who bought attention to these flexible wings and Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff’s role in it
“It was a bit of a psychological thing. At least from my side, this is not to be taken that seriously. Mr. Wolff is doing his job, and at the moment they are doing it very, very well. You have to acknowledge that without envy”
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Retired F1 world champion Jenson Button has revealed that back when he was teammates with Lewis Hamilton at McLaren, Hamilton “was just driving every lap flat out”
However, now Lewis “understands what he needs to do to get the best out of the car from A to B”
Button also explained that he was the sort of driver who needed “a car developed around” him “and the team support around” him “to develop it in” his “direction”
Button thinks that this “mentally hurt Lewis a little bit at certain points of” their “time together”
“But when Lewis probably has an issue or a bad weekend now, he will go away, think about it and come back. It’s just his job” added Button
Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, has divulged that he has “no interest in the simulator” and that he does “20 laps a year, maybe”
He also confirmed that he “used to walk the track when” he “was younger. But what” he’s “discovered is that for” him, “it was a pointless exercise”
He further explained that “it’s a lot different when you approach it at high speed” and “that it was just wasting energy”
McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo has disclosed that “it's like being a beginner all over again, being tutored every corner!”
He added that “obviously the feedback” he’s “getting from the team is good and they're obviously trying to get” him “into some good habits with this car and the characteristics”
He further explained that it is in “longer corners where you're in the corner for a long time and having to be quite delicate and precise, that's where... the car is sensitive”
“It's working well in some ways but not well the others, and” he’s “certainly trying to programme” himself “to basically learn how to drive faster. So” he’s “back at school!”
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc has informed that they “were quite strong in the third sector” in Catalunya
This sector according to him “is very technical. Hopefully, that’s a positive sign for Monaco”
He is also “really looking forward to” his “home race. Seeing fans there in the grandstands will be amazing and” he hopes to be “competitive there”
McLaren’s technical director James Key has elaborated that “from the perspective of the car” a sprint race “doesn't really change anything”
Apart from the fact that they have to ask themselves how they “can quickly adapt to a different set-up for the weekend”
Honda's chief engineer for Scuderia AlphaTauri, Masamitsu Motohashi doesn’t “feel like there is a language barrier” between Honda and AlphaTauri or Red Bull
He also added that with respect to AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda “the results are not there, and” they “expected more, but the feedback is not suffering and is still as good as ever”
Will Red Bull be forced to change their wing design following the FIA’s new test?
