FIA to revamp rear flexi-wing tests despite finding "no monkey business" during F1 2021 season

The FIA is planning to introduce more stringent tests to clamp down on “flexi wings” in the 2022 F1 season, despite not finding illegal parts on cars last season. The new test will reportedly fix one of the main issues with the methods used during last season, which left a loophole that could be cleverly exploited by teams.

Speaking in a post-season interview with Autosport, Nikolas Tombazis, the FIA’s head of Single-seater Technical Matters, said:

“It was not a bad test, but it can be improved. So, we’re thinking how to maybe make some improvements to it for next year, potentially. In Qatar, there was no monkey business identified, or anything like that. We didn’t find something that was concerning.”

At the 2021 Qatar Grand Prix, the FIA launched an investigation into the behavior of rear wings on all teams, following accusations from Red Bull against rivals Mercedes. The Milton Keynes-based outfit had claimed that Mercedes were using a flexi wing that could bend beyond the limits allowed by the regulations, allowing the team to gain a straight-line advantage.

Following extensive tests, however, the FIA found no illegal parts on any cars on the grid. Nevertheless, there were concerns that the tests employed by the FIA might not be up to the task. According to Tombazis, one of the main issues with the existing tests was that they failed to expose any aero-elasticity features employed by the teams in their wings, that could allow them to potentially gain a straight-line advantage.

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F1 undertook "rule-busting phase" preventing teams finding loopholes in 2022 regulations

F1 reportedly spent a chunk of time anticipating any loopholes that teams might find in the 2022 regulations. F1’s managing director of motorsports, Ross Brawn, has revealed that his team went through a “rule-busting" phase after the initial draft of the regulations to ensure the final draft is as air-tight as possible.

Speaking in a post-season interview with the New York Times, Brawn said:

“Trying to anticipate every loophole or every interpretation is very difficult but for sure, our process was to understand the problem, design around eliminating the problem. Our group spent some time looking at the sensitivities of the different areas to see where there could be some scope left for the teams to evolve their designs and change their designs. Then we did have a rule-busting phase where we did try and break the rules and see what loopholes we could find. We went through that.”

Brawn said one of the key goals for the team when developing the new regulations was to ensure that no single team can arrive at the start of the 2022 F1 season with a huge performance advantage and then proceed to dominate the field.

Ironically, Brawn himself led his own team — Brawn GP — to championship victory in 2009, after arriving at the start of the season with a huge performance advantage over the rest of the grid.