The FIA will officially tighten up tests in two weeks to measure the flexibility of the rear wings. This weekend you can ‘just’ drive with the rear wings that have passed the current tests, but from the French Grand Prix the rear wings have to pass more severe tests and will therefore be less flexible.
At least that is the intention of the FIA, but to be sure of its business and keep an eye on the rear wings all year round, all teams will have to drive with twelve green/yellow dots on their rear wing every race weekend, so has RacingNews365 understood.
Six of these must be located on the flap of the rear wing: The part of the rear wing that in Red Bull’s case has Honda on it and folds open when DRS is used (see photo below for reference). Six of them must be on the main plane to sit. That’s the part that comes under the flap sitting.
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The dots are 10 millimeters in diameter and will remain on the cars for the rest of the season. As explained earlier, the FIA hopes this will allow it to monitor the flexibility of the wings more closely. Once the new, tightened rules on flexibility in the run-up to the GP of France take effect, the motorsport federation will be able to compare the flexibility of the new rear wings with the flexibility of the current rear wings.
The FIA does not know exactly what the impact of the tightened tests will be. Perhaps the new values are still too low and some teams’ rear wings will still be too flexible in a few weeks’ time? This can be determined by comparing the images and the tests can be re-sharpened if necessary.
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