F1's new flexi-wing rules ‘wasted everyone's money', Lewis Hamilton says

New York Times

3 days ago

BARCELONA — Lewis Hamilton called the latest Formula One technical directive regarding the flexi-wing debacle 'a waste of money' after qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix saw the competitive order relatively unchanged. McLaren still dominated, Oscar Piastri taking pole position with a 0.209-second gap ahead of teammate Lando Norris.
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A majority of the grid brought new front wings to Barcelona ahead of vertical load tests that would analyze how much the wings flexed for each team. This came after flexi-wings dominated headlines on and off track last season, and the rear wings underwent testing in Australia (and subsequent changes were made from China and Japan). But the front wing tests were delayed because the development for complex car parts takes time — and money.
But as teams prepared for the Spanish Grand Prix weekend, some noticed how there was little impact with the change to the front wing. Hamilton commented after qualifying that 'the balance is definitely not as nice as what we had before' and while testing in the simulator, he noticed the car was 'pretty much exactly the same,' though with some oversteer in highspeed sections of the track.
'It's just wasted everyone's money,' the Ferrari driver said. 'It's literally changed nothing. Everyone's wings still bend, which is half the bending, and everyone's had to make new wings and spend more money to make these.'
Hamilton later said the money should be given to charity instead.
Coming into this weekend, the hope was that the technical directive would help slow down McLaren, possibly closing the gap between the top teams. Barcelona is known for being a strong testing track for aerodynamics, and as qualifying unfolded, it became evident just how dominant McLaren is. Team principal Andrea Stella told Sky Sports the technical directive was 'quite immaterial' after his team secured a front row lockout.
'When you look at the numbers associated to the TD, it was always going to be minor,' he added. 'So yeah, it entertained to have this kind of debate. But in our numbers, in our simulation, it was everything very small. So we weren't concerned from this point of view.'
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While Max Verstappen and George Russell were 0.302 seconds off of Piastri's pole position time, Hamilton was half a second behind after qualifying fifth. It's a significant performance gap, despite two thirds of the season remaining, considering the regulations change in 2026. At some point this year, teams will need to shift all of their focus to next year's car, like Williams already has, rather than continuing to develop the 2025 challenger.
McLaren currently holds a 172-point lead over Mercedes in the constructor standings, while the Silver Arrows, Red Bull and Ferrari are covered by five points after eight race weekends.
'It's not an insurmountable amount that you could catch up, but, for example, a lot of work, months, went into developing (the new front wing) and getting like a tenth of performance,' Hamilton said about McLaren's pace. 'So, I don't know if we have… we don't have half a second coming, that's for sure, which is what you'd need to topple them. But never say never.'
(Juan Medina/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)