Rivals question legality of Red Bull, Ferrari wings

Posted at 12:00am on 31 July 2010

By Alan Baldwin

BUDAPEST, July 31 (Reuters) - Mercedes and Formula One leaders McLaren have sought an urgent ruling on the legality of controversial front wings adopted by Red Bull and Ferrari this month.

McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh told reporters at the Hungarian Grand Prix that McLaren had no plans to protest but wanted the governing FIA to clarify the situation before they spent time and resources developing something similar.

"We are asking for a clarification on what is permissible here," he said, adding he would ideally like it before Sunday's race.

Rivals have complained that the front wings appear to be illegally flexing at speed, with the end-plates touching the ground at times rather than remaining 85mm above the bottom of the car as the rules stipulate.

Red Bull and Ferrari say the wings, which do not flex under static stress tests, are within the regulations and have passed inspections by the International Automobile Federation (FIA).

Asked about his description of McLaren as first of the fixed-wing cars after a qualifying session dominated by Red Bull, Whitmarsh grimaced.

"They passed scrutineering so they must be legal, mustn't they?," he replied.

"It's well known that if you can get the front wing end-plates close to the ground, there's a substantial performance advantage," he added, calculating it could be around a second a lap.

Red Bull's pole setter Sebastian Vettel was 1.7 seconds quicker than McLaren's championship leader Lewis Hamilton in the final qualifying session at the Hungaroring.

"The FIA has got to take a view now of what is acceptable," said Whitmarsh.

"Do I think that they (the wings) are right in Formula One to be flexing to that extent? No, I don't. But I am not the rule maker or interpreter."

Mercedes GP team principal Ross Brawn, a former Ferrari technical director, also wants the FIA to clarify the situation.

"I think observation of video and stills shows that Red Bull, as the prime case but Ferrari partially, have managed to set their cars up to run the front wings a lot lower to the ground than perhaps ourselves or McLaren.

"What we are asking is, before we all go off and have a massive development programme, is (race director) Charlie (Whiting) going to change the rules before we all get there?

"When it is demonstrated, you start to think of all the ways you can achieve it and I think for the latter part of this year and for next year we will all be doing the same. So we just want to make sure Charlie is comfortable with it."

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Ken Ferris;To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

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