Many teams have brought upgrades to Austin, including constructors’s championship leaders McLaren. The Woking-based team has announced seven different improvements, with most of them focusing on their rear wing following the controversies sparked by it.
Attention to the car component, which appears to be in compliance with the FIA rules by having passed all the static load tests, was brought after the Azerbaijan round. In Baku, frames of the upper element of the wing rotating to allowed more aerodynamics went viral on social media, going on to secure the label of “mini DRS”.
The flexing wing, a phenomenon which can only happen at high speed and was apparently seen as well in previous races, but more prominent in the low drag configuration designed for races such as Baku and Las Vegas, raised questions among their rivals, with McLaren interacting with the FiA in order to explain the situation.
In spite of team representatives denying that the Federation had asked to remove that characteristic, or to do any modifications of sorts, McLaren has effectively tweaked the layout of all the rear wings to be used until the end of the season, starting from this American round.
Not only the upper part of the wing will be more sturdy, so as not to be as bendy, but the slot gap which opened by flex will decrease in size. Media from the British team commented on the implemented measure, highlighting the fact that it was a spontaneous consequence of the open collaboration McLaren has with the governing body.
“As previously mentioned, McLaren proactively offered to make some minor adjustments to our rear wing following the Azerbaijan GP. We have made minor adjustments to all our rear wings since Baku to varying extents to ensure no further issues in this area.”
The Federation has opted for an overall stricter approach, with even more sections of the rear wings checked for bending and the usage of even more accurate and high resolution rear cameras while inspecting the offending flap areas, even if the footage obtained could not be used to penalise a team.
McLaren was not the only team to change the look of their rear wing, with other contenders opting for the upgrade route before the tightening of the measures involved as well.
