Lewis Hamilton calls FIA wing rule a waste – Guenther Steiner and McLaren disagree

Guenther Steiner firmly responded to Lewis Hamilton’s remarks relating to the brand new FIA directive on versatile wings, which got here into impact on the 2025 Spanish Grand Prix. The seven-time Formulation 1 world champion had known as the regulatory adjustments a “pointless waste of cash,” stating that “the wings nonetheless flex, only a bit much less,” and that his Ferrari “appears precisely the identical as earlier than.”

However Guenther Steiner, talking as a visitor on the Pink Flags podcast, rejected that perspective: “Lewis mentioned it was a waste of cash. That’s not true. Nobody threw cash away. Everybody labored to adjust to the directive, and in lots of circumstances, it solely required a easy and cheap modification.”

McLaren’s dominance even with out flexi-wings disproves Lewis HamiltonThe FIA had knowledgeable groups again in January of the necessity to adjust to stricter entrance wing flex checks. Some groups, resembling McLaren, reportedly addressed the problem with easy reinforcement brackets. “I learn that McLaren simply added a small additional help. It was a low-cost replace, nothing difficult,” Guenther Steiner famous, additionally making a pointed comment in regards to the complaints from different groups:

“They protested, however what benefit did they get? None. In reality, they solely gave McLaren extra momentum.” In Barcelona, McLaren secured one other dominant one-two end, with Oscar Piastri forward of Lando Norris, displaying that the regulatory change had not slowed down the MCL39’s efficiency.

In line with Guenther Steiner, the credit score goes to the Woking crew’s technical energy: “McLaren is aware of precisely what the automobile wants. In the event that they lose the flexi-wing benefit, they go into the wind tunnel and regain the steadiness. Perhaps not 100%, however 99.8%.” – the previous Haas crew boss concluded.

Regardless of expectations of a shake-up within the technical hierarchy, the directive has had no clear impression on the competitiveness of the groups. McLaren stays the crew to beat, proving that with or with out flexibility, the actual energy lies in engineering know-how.

Jun 10, 2025Luca Marini

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