"It just doesn't look right": Alpine's dangling rear wing in Canada did not seem right

F1 pundit Mark Hughes spoke about Alpine's dangling rear wing at the 2023 Canadian GP, which seemed to raise questions from McLaren team principal Andrea Stella.

Esteban Ocon's dangling rear wing raised questions at the end of the race in Canada after Lando Norris was heard complaining to his team about the issue over team radio.

However, while the rear wing seemed to be loose and flap around a bit, it did not fall off or cause any damage to anyone else on track.

Ocon finished P8 in Montreal with his questionable rear wing, while his teammate Pierre Gasly finished outside the points in P12. Mark Hughes believes that while Alpine's rear wing 'didn't look right', its integrity was not compromised.

Speaking on The Race podcast:

"It didn't look like a failed part. I don't see that there is a benefit to be gained by it flapping about like that but it's maybe a part of its integrity in the way that it is mounted to the end plates and the beam wing. I'd be interested to see what the outcome of that is because it just doesn't look right."

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Alpine addresses its loose rear wing in Canada

The team principal of the French team, Otmar Szafneuer, was glad that Esteban Ocon's rear wing didn't fall off towards the end of the 2023 F1 Canadian GP.

Ocon was locked in a battle for seventh place with McLaren's Lando Norris, who noticed that the Frenchman's rear wing was wobbling terribly, seemingly on the edge of falling off entirely. Despite its shaky nature, the team claims that it knew what was happening.

As per Motorsport-Total, the Alpine team boss said:

"The wing held. We designed and built this wing, so we knew what was going on. And we were glad it wouldn't come loose. We test this in research and development. We put it through these tests simply because of the way it's mounted and we're therefore seeing these types of modes and understanding whether or not it's going to come loose."

He added:

"The FIA came up to us and said it looks like your rear wing is moving and we looked at that and talked about it. We were confident that it would be okay with a few laps to go."

With Alpine making sizeable gains to the leaders, it will be interesting to watch their progress come Austria.