Oscar Piastri put in a brilliant drive in Baku, starting from P2 to win the Azerbaijan GP. However, there was a lot of controversy surrounding the legality of the McLaren MCL38, with its rear wing being the main focus.
Following Piastri’s overtake on Charles Leclerc midway into the race, the rear cam on the Aussie’s car showed something peculiar. A ‘mini DRS’ opened up while he was on the straights, which gave him an advantage over Leclerc behind — who was trying to mount an attack.
What is the ‘Mini DRS’?
Usually, the DRS (Drag Reduction System) helps a driver to open up the entire flap plane of the rear wing to reduce the aerodynamic drag and gain an extra 10 to 15 mph on the straights.
In McLaren’s ‘Mini DRS’ case, the corner of the upper flap of the rear wing appeared to open up slightly whenever it was facing sufficient load even when Piastri wasn’t using DRS. This reduced the drag on Piastri’s car to some extent, and according to many, prevented Leclerc from making a pass, despite the Monegasque getting very close.
Shocking, McLaren has 2 DRS gadgets.
New: an extra mini DRS that opens automaticallyAfter the Flexi front wing, now they’ve a Flexi rear wing. Even my dog can see that this isn’t right.
Seeing this, you might be wondering how McLaren has made such a significant jump since… pic.twitter.com/98R7lQnFrq
— Marc (@433_marc) September 15, 2024
According to the FIA’s technical regulations, “Any alteration of the incidence of the uppermost closed section may only be commanded by direct driver input…”
The ‘deflection’ of the upper flap has also been pointed out in Article 3.15.10 of the technical regulations. “The RW flap deflect no more than 7mm horizontally when a 500 N load is applied horizontally… The loads will be applied in a rearward direction using a suitable 25mm wide adaptor which must be supplied by the relevant team.”
As it turns out, the FIA performed all the checks on Piastri‘s MCL38, and nothing was deemed illegal. However, a huge chunk of the F1 community is convinced of foul play, because the flaps being so ‘blatantly’ open during the long straights when Piastri didn’t have DRS, was surprising.
In fact, Piastri had a 2 mph advantage over Leclerc when they didn’t have their DRS open, which turned into a 4 mph advantage for Leclerc otherwise.
Teams look to protest against McLaren
According to multiple sources, Mercedes, Red Bull, and Ferrari will now be protesting this controversial flap, hoping to get some points away from McLaren, if they do get disqualified from the Azerbaijan GP.
The rear wing fiasco adds more spotlight on McLaren, who are already in hot water with other F1 teams over their front wing. On camera, it appears to be too flexible, giving rise to multiple claims about the Woking-based team using a flexi-wing.
Flexi wing part 1174107 https://t.co/uPRT250Pnu
— MultiViewer (@f1multiviewer) September 15, 2024
Red Bull and Ferrari in particular, are looking to have discussions with the FIA regarding McLaren’s alleged flexi-wing. “If it’s deemed to be acceptable, then obviously that encourages you to pursue similar solutions yourself”, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said.
McLaren is not the only team being alleged to have a flexi-wing, however, as Mercedes are also reported to have the same.
This could make Mercedes opt out of protesting against the ‘Mini DRS’, however, an investigation could prompt Red Bull and Ferrari to join hands against them as well.
